Just when you thought it might have been a SwanThief fic... CS arrives!
Enjoy!
Reviews are always appreciated!
Emma spun around in alarm, her hands reaching for Henry and pulling him behind her as she came face to face with a huge Native American looking man.
"Why have you come here Pirate? We banished you," the man said, and Emma noticed that behind him stood three other men with tribal paint, headdress's, and bow and arrows pointing directly at her. She was smart enough to realise the first arrow missed on purpose, and the next would not.
"I'm not a pirate," she replied, trying to sound firm.
"You come in big pirate ship, you pirate," he said back in the thick accent she'd only heard in old western movies.
Emma glanced up at the Jolly Roger. Where the hell was Neal?
"I'm not a pirate. It's not my ship. I swear," she said loudly, hoping Neal would appear.
She raised her hands in front of her chest, as if to indicate some kind of submission and surrender, but the men pulled back their arrows.
"I don't mean any harm, I promise. I'm not a pirate, I'm just a sheriff, and a..." she hesitated, wondering if revealing her fairytale land title would help right now. "I'm a prin-"
"Emma!" Came Neal's voice, cutting her off. She looked up and all the arrows seemed to follow her line of sight, pointing now to Neal. "What the hell is going on?"
"They think we're pirates," Emma muttered as quietly as possible, wishing the Indian in front of her would move out of her personal space.
"Chief Big Little Panther?" Neal said, which caused Emma to look up at him dumbstruck. She'd never heard such an absurd grouping of words in her life.
The man before her was examining Neal very intently.
"Nibs?" he finally said.
Neal laughed his normal hoarse laugh, and jumped from the ship onto the sand.
"Yeah, it's me," he exclaimed, his face plastered with a wide grin.
The man kept staring at him, and the men with arrows kept them aimed at Neal. Finally the Indian in front of Emma stepped away, and moved to Neal, still scrutinizing him.
"It is you!" He cried, moving to Neal and hugging him.
Emma thought strangely, given the size of the unknown man, that Neal actually looked quite small in his arms. It was the closest she'd ever come to seeing Neal as a child.
"Chief, how have you been? How's Neverland?" Neal gushed, looking up at him with his lopsided smile.
The chief began to talk about the state of the Island, and Emma swore she heard something about mermaids. She leant closer to Neal, still struggling to grasp everything that was going on around her.
"Chief as in the Picaninnes in Neverland and Tiger-Lily and –" Emma started to mutter just so he could hear, but once again he interrupted.
"Tiger Lily!" Neal repeated, looking to the Chief, his eyes wide and a smile to match. "How is she?"
"Tiger-Lily is in clearing. I sure she love to be reunited with favourite lost boy," the Chief said, clapping Neal on the back, whilst Emma blinked many more times than seemed necessary. "Come."
Neal looked to Emma with the same grin, and Henry, who Emma had nearly forgotten was there, bounced on his feet again. Emma however had had enough.
"Everyone just stop!" She shouted.
The Chief, Henry and Neal, who'd begun walking away, froze on the spot, and turned around, only Henry looked guilty, the Chief was confused, and Neal too. Emma marched up to Neal, nearly as angry as she was the day she found him in Manhattan.
"You're a Lost Boy and you grew up in Neverland with, like, Tinkerbell and fairies and flying and and– "
Words failed her as she shook her head, not being able to believe this.
"Emma I'm– "
"Why didn't you tell me any of this? You know, when we together, you never thought to say, oh by the way, I'm a freaking Lost Boy and I spent hundreds of years not growing up but flying around with Peter Pan?" Emma exploded, glaring at Neal.
"Oh, is Peter here?" Henry asked, looking at the Chief.
"I'm sorry," Neal responded, sounding unperturbed by the whole thing. "But it's not like you asked."
"Oh, well I'm sorry. Next time I'll be sure to ask my boyfriend if he grew up in a freaking fairy tale."
"Well, technically I didn't grow up here," Neal muttered trying to joke, but Emma stopped him with a glare. "Look Emma, I'm sorry. I should have told you before I came who I was. I came here when I left my father. They took me in, and looked after me. Peter named me Nibs," Neal explained hastily.
Emma's mind, even though it had climbed a beanstalk, battled a giant, run from ogre's, travelled through magical portals and sailed on clouds, was still struggling to process this information.
"How about we go into the clearing, you can keep yelling at me there," Neal said, but it was clear the prospect of being united with people he'd long left behind was a bigger draw than having Emma yell at him.
Emma looked at Neal through narrowed eyes, finally relenting, even though the internal fight against logic was anything from over.
"Let me just grab Tamara and we'll be on our way," Neal said, nodding to the chief, and disappearing up the Jolly Roger.
Emma looked from Henry to the Chief, and at the three men who'd previously held arrows up to kill her, but were now walking back into the trees beyond the sand. She looked at the Chief, who was still stony faced. Emma could hear Neal calling Tamara's name in the background, but Henry stopped her from wondering why.
"Um, excuse me, Mr Chief," came Henry's voice, and Emma could tell he was nervous.
She looked down at him, he barely came up to the Chief's hip, but the Chief gave him his full attention.
"Is Peter Pan here?"
The corner of the Chief's mouth twitched, as if he wished to smile, but never allowed himself to do so.
"Peter exist only in heart of every young boy and girl."
The Chief's speech continued, but Emma's attention was stolen, by Neal, who landed beside her with a loud thud. Emma expected him to turn to her and say something about Tamara not wanting to join them, but instead, he looked wildly around, his eyes darting about it panic.
"She's gone," he whispered to Emma.
"What? How?" Emma said back
"I have no idea," he muttered breathlessly, putting his hand into his hair, and glancing around. "We were standing in front of the only exit. I have no idea how anyone could get to her."
"You've checked the boat?"
"Of course I have!" He whispered indignantly.
On instinct Emma moved around to the side of the shore the boat was blocking, looking for the tall figure of Neal's fiancé. Neal was right, they were guarding the only exit as they talked to the Chief, and if she'd jumped off into the water, they'd have heard. Emma tilted her head left to be sure that Henry stayed in her sight.
They'd come from a land of mysterious deaths and disappearances, and apparently landed in one with exactly the same problem. She went to move back to Henry, her own fears forcing her to abandon her short lived search. As she walked back she picked up the end of whatever the chief was saying to Henry.
"Peter pan, you see, is… Captain Hook," The chief finished, however the last word seemed different to the others, his voice had gone up, and fear seemed to have injected itself into his words. Peter Pan wasn't Captain Hook. She knew Hook. Hook was at home, and Peter was here.
Emma finally looked up at the large Indian man, ready to ask what gibberish he was talking, but she saw that he was pointing to the ship. In a moment she completely understood what was happening, but in another way, she felt completely lost. Stood on the railing of the Jolly Roger in all his black-cloaked glory was the exact man Emma knew to be at home. Captain Hook, grinning the same cocky smirk he had the last time he'd seen her.
Killian kept Snow's hand firmly in his as he felt the falling feeling pass through his stomach.
"Whatever you do, don't let go," Hook shouted over the great sound of wind rushing past them.
He moved the compass to get a better read. It was sitting somewhere between what on a normal compass would read as south. He needed it to be at the point of what would be north.
"We have to move into that green light," Hook yelled, and he pushed forwards, as if he was swimming, and they moved into the green light surrounding them.
Everything around them was green, but the compass told Hook exactly what he needed to know. He kept pushing forwards, until the green was growing faint, and there was light at the end of the tunnel. He glanced back at the compass, which was pointing at due north, and then, without warning, the green was gone completely, and they all landed on something hard.
Hook opened his eyes. He almost had to pinch himself. He was on the deck of his ship. A smile spread across his lips as he stood, putting his hand to the wheel, and relishing the feeling of having this carved wood back under his fingertips. He completely lost all sense of who he was with, and where they'd gone to, until he heard the princely prat speak.
"Who's over there? I can hear voices."
Hook's head snapped up, remembering everything instantly as his eyes swept over Charming and Snow. He could hear the voices coming from the left of the ship, near the break in the railing. He walked on, without saying anything, and he heard a voice he hadn't heard in years.
He smirked to himself, already knowing who was there. He with a twirl of his coat tails, he was up on top of the banisters, using a rope to steady himself. His eyes fell on the Chief, looking exactly as he had when Hook had last seen him.
At the sound of his name he flicked his head up, relishing in the arrogance he could bring to this moment. It faltered slightly as blonde hair came into his vision. Emma. He hadn't expected to see her, even though it made sense for her to stay so near what had brought her here.
For a moment, he had the strangest compulsion to purely address her, to take her and show her Neverland alone. In his own mind he questioned momentarily as to why only her, the Lost Boy had come together. He had heard that other woman was with the Lost Boy. An irrational anger rushed through him to be directed at the Lost boy. He pulled himself together enough to maintain his arrogant demeanour as he stood on the railing of his ship.
"Chief, oh how I've missed you," he said sarcastically.
"You have not been missed Pirate," the Chief replied in his deep voice.
Hook's eyes moved back to Emma, who didn't look pleased to see him.
"Now now love, don't waste all your time explaining how much you missed me. You have to conserve your energy here," Hook told her, tilting his head just to be extra playful.
Emma rolled her eyes, and Killian just continued to grin. The Lost Boy all of a sudden lunged forwards to the foot holes in the ship, and began clambering toward him on the banister. Hook looked down at him with one eyebrow raised.
Neal was on the ship before Hook could do anything about it. Killian had just jumped off the banister, when he had Hook gripped by the front of his jacket.
"Where is she? Where did you take her?" Neal bellowed.
Hook immediately moved to his own defence. He shoved Neal back, but he didn't let go, so Hook raised his left hand.
"Let go of me Lost Boy, or you'll find a hook where you do not desire one," Hook threatened, his eyes glaring into Neal's, and his mouth twisting dangerously. "Exactly like old times."
"Tell me where she is and I'll let–"
There was blonde head beside him, and suddenly, Hook was let go.
"Hey! Hey! That's enough," said a voice, and it was the Prince standing between them, Snow trailing behind.
"He took Tamara," Neal shot at David, before a realisation of who he was speaking to hit him. "Wait. How did you– What are you doing here?"
Charming had separated Hook and Neal by standing between them, a hand on each of their chest.
"It doesn't matter. Who's missing?" Came Snow's voice, and Neal did a double take when she stepped forwards.
Hooked heard the sound of boots on wood, and knew Emma was climbing the ship herself.
"Tamara," Neal said, still glaring at Hook.
Hook, angry at having someone get the better of him, lifted his Hook threatenily at Neal again, and David looked ready to tell him to stop, but another arrival stopped him.
"Emma!" David cried instead, stepping away from both men and to his daughter.
"David, Mary Margaret!" Emma exclaimed, and Hook watched Henry pop up behind her.
Snow moved between everyone, sweeping her full grown daughter into her arms.
"Don't you ever do that again," the mother told her as she pulled back, and for possibly the first time, Hook saw a sheepish expression on Emma's face.
"We were so worried," David added, moving to Emma.
Hook's eyes and not left Emma, and it didn't until he felt a hard blow to his chest. Neal had taken his chance with the disturbance and lunged forwards once more to grab Hook, but missed, smacking him in the chest instead.
That was more than enough for Killian, who finally saw red. He gripped Neal with one hand, shunting him backwards against the railing. He discovered his height over Neal was more than he assumed, and pushed Neal slightly over the banister. He brought his hook to Neal's face, holding it just above his skin.
"Do not touch me Lost Boy," he said in a dangerously quiet voice. "Or you'll have another scar to join the one I gave you long ago."
Neal's eyes were watching the point of his hook very intently. Before Neal could respond, or Hook could continue his threat, another set of hands separated them, but just not the same as those before.
"Hook," came a loud voice to his right, and then Emma was in front him, moving between him and Neal and using her body to push him away from the man. "Stop it you two!"
Hook's chest was heaving, as he continued to glare at Neal, but Emma kept pushing him backwards slowly. His eyes fell from Neal to Emma briefly, and by the time he returned his vision back to Neal, his anger was forgotten, everything as forgotten.
He looked back to Emma. Her face was only inches from his as she tried to intervene. The moment his blue eyes had found hers, very little else seemed to matter. His eyebrows very slowly lowered, almost showing his body's own confusion at the moment it was having.
Every breath seemed slow, and time followed suit. They stood, staring at each other, Emma with her hands still upon his chest, and Hook was doing his best to read her like the open book he knew her to be. He had no real read on her in this moment. It was as if all his senses, and certainly his defenses, had gone fuzzy with her so close.
To him, a lifetime could happily have passed as he watched her, and there had only been one other woman who had caused him to feel such a way. Emma looked afraid, almost lost, and slowly he began to have an inkling as to why. He went to step forward, really unaware of where he was, just engrossed in this feeling he had not felt since he stood on this deck with another woman many centuries ago.
"We'll just go find her," David's voice floated into his ears, waking him from his daze, and as Emma's head turned he realised it woke her too.
Emma looked back to Hook, her mouth still slightly agape, and her eyes searching his now. She was afraid, that Hook could see. He could see it as if it was print across her forehead in huge letters. So he spared her the feeling. An enemy should be afraid, but fear was not what Killian wished for in a… whatever Emma was. That needed to be discovered. He forced himself to let that devious smirk of his appear. "All in good time love," he whispered smugly.
Then, fear was wiped away as she rolled her eyes again. She pushed off him, and walked the few steps back to the group. As he watched her walk he wanted to hook his fingers behind her elbow, and rip her back to his chest, but he did not. He had a Lost Boy to deal with first.
Hook stomped forwards, standing beside Charming. "The solution is simple," he added the loudest to the fray of voices searching for this person Hook was being blamed for. "We need help from those in here who know everything."
"TINKERBELL," he yelled.