A/N: Howdy Team!

What I would not give to be anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere at this moment. I am dying in this heat. And my air conditioner is terrible.

Anyway, I feel like everyone needs to know this quote.

"When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies." – J.M. Barrie

I did one of my major works based on this. It is just….gahhhh…genius.

So, enjoy the chapter! xx

Hearts

It was late afternoon by the time Killian had calmed down and thought about what was going on between him and Ella. He had to trust her; if he didn't, he would lose her.

But there was more than his own thoughts milling about in his head. Something Pan had said to him the previous night wouldn't let go of him and it had made him tell Ella to leave him, something he never wanted in his life. But Hook couldn't sit there hating himself forever, and went to go and find where Ella had set off to.

She hadn't gone very far. She was just sitting up on the forecastle, looking out towards the horizon. It gave Killian a twinge when he realised the direction she was staring led directly to Veria – not that she knew that. No, Ella was staring out there to try and clear her head, something she'd had to do a lot in the past week.

So when Killian came walking up the stairs cautiously, she tried to be open and kind. But he didn't begin to apologise. Instead, he decided to settle what Pan had told him last night once and for all, getting down to business immediately.

"How old were you when you were found on your parent's doorstep?"

Ella didn't know, so she merely shrugged, but that seemed to only make Killian more agitated and he looked up at her, with fierce questioning in his eyes. "I don't know, okay?" she continued, "I don't know when I was found."

"But pictures you drew as a child, family portraits, when did they…"

Ella hesitated, thinking hard. "I guess," she released finally, "I would have been four…no, five. Yeah." Her first painting had her name in her scrawled handwriting whilst her mother had written Age 5 on the back. She'd been five when she was dropped on her parents doorstep.

So why could she remember nothing from before then?

Killian gulped as he continued. So far, Ella's information had done little to ease his discontent and he lowered his eyes in curiosity to where her shirt dipped into her cleavage.

Ella's eyes widened as Hook closed in on her. He raised his hand and placed it lightly just beneath the collar of her shirt, resting upon her sternum as he felt her heart beating.

"It's there," he murmured, looking up at her, "It's stronger than it was before."

"Hook...what are you-"

His hand pressed down on her skin, digging in. It was only when she looked down at the pain, that she realised Hook was holding something blue and glowing in his hand. It wasn't an ability he usually had, but Pan had given him a little magic, knowing that he would need to prove the incredulous claims that the young boy had made.

"What are you Ella?"

"What am I?" she asked in astonishment before it finally hit her what Hook had just done. "What the fuck are you?! How did you even just do that? Why would you do that?" He had just torn out her heart. Not even figuratively, which she was glad of because that probably would have hurt more, but literally.

Hook was staring at it, the blue making his eyes glow as his mouth opened in a wide 'o'. "So it's true," he finally murmured. "Pan was telling the truth."

"The truth about what, Hook?" Ella growled in frustration. "I swear, if you don't tell me what the hell is going on..."

"What colour is your blood?" Hook cut her off, his eyes searching hers earnestly.

"Red!" Ella answered quickly, searching his eyes, so focused on getting answers. "My blood is red! Give me back my heart!"

"It wasn't always," he mused. "You said that General Jones drained you..."

"Yes," she said, stepping forward, "Once upon a time I had bronze blood. Now I'm just any other person..."

"With a blue heart."

"And it's mine, so give it back!"

Hook glanced at it hesitantly, regret crossing his face as he realised the invasion that he'd just made of Ella and placing her heart back in her chest delicately. The moment he did, Ella stepped back, staring daggers at him.

"You're a fairy, Ella."

Ella's face screwed up in utter confusion, her anger momentarily forgotten. "What?!"

"A fairy," Hook clarified, taking a step forward. "A blue heart that beats with belief; bronze blood that flows with healing."

"You forget the wings Hook."

"Tink doesn't have wings," he sighed. Pan had been right so far, and there was only one more part of this revelation that he had yet to confirm. And it was the one thing that he really, really, didn't want to confirm. Because if it was true, then fate had to be at work in some very cruel manner.

"She doesn't have wings," Hook continued softly, "Because when a fairy is born, their life is connected to a child's. And that child's laughter, that child's belief, is what keeps a fairy whole."

"So what?" Ella returned, "Once a child stops believing a fairy simply just loses their wings." She said it all so disbelievingly. How was she just supposed to believe him? But Ella found herself second guessing herself. She had just seen her own heart, and it was blue. An unnatural kind of blue. And her mother had found her on her doorstep as a young child. Ella took a moment before saying:

"I can't be a fairy Hook," Ella said softly, "I never had wings."

Hook nodded simply as he continued, a certain pain in his face, "But you don't remember your life before you were five."

Ella opened and closed her mouth a few times before keeping it shut, unable to speak.

"When I was ten," Killian swallowed, "My brother's life and mine were in the worst possible state. We were living on the street, starving, rejected by even the orphanages. And I lost hope."

When he was ten, when Ella was five, Killian Jones stopped believing.

Ella sunk onto a nearby crate, her hand covering her mouth in shock as she realised what Hook was saying. She didn't doubt his story, but she doubted the connections. She was confused as to why he had brought this up now.

But worse than that, it made so much sense.

Tinkerbell had gone to Neverland in search of the last fairy.

Pan had bought her because of her bronze blood.

Her mother had been so insistent that she never be called Ella.

"Because I'm the changeling," Ella finally muttered into her hands, shooting her eyes up to Hook's in shock. "The fairy that was sent away before the Fairy Haven in Veria was wiped out. I'm that fairy. I'm a fairy." She could scarcely believe it.

"Do you want me to go find Tink?" Hook looked at Ella almost apologetically, but in his heart, he felt he was hurting more. It was his fault for not believing. If he'd just kept his belief, Ella would still be a fairy.

"No," Ella pulled herself to her feet before walking around Hook with a hand held up to keep him still. She averted her eyes as she said, "I'm going to go and find her, and speak to her, on my own."

"But I –"

"You took my heart, Hook," Ella looked up at him saddened. "Even if it was just for a moment, you invaded my body and pulled out the one thing that matters to me. The one thing that I protect most of all."

Hook couldn't hold her gaze, not with the way she was looking at him. He couldn't do anything except give her his words, but he knew it wasn't enough.

"I'm so sorry, Ella. I just…" There were no words.

"If you wanted my heart, Hook, you just had to ask," Ella sighed as she placed her right hand around his neck with a slightly pained expression. She brought his face down to hers and touched their foreheads, whispering into his lips sadly, "I would give it to you willingly."

And her meaning wasn't lost on Killian Jones as he watched her walk down the stairs and off of his ship. He clenched his fist in anger at himself. One day soon, he was going to cross the line so far that when Ella walked away from him, she wouldn't be coming back.

That was the day he feared beyond all others.

10 Years Ago

The girl was unused to flying, that much was certain. So when Pan landed with her, held tightly to his body, he made sure that she was steady on her feet before taking a good five steps away from her and letting her empty the sparse contents of her stomach onto the ground.

Looking at her pitiful figure, he still couldn't quite understand why he'd chosen her. It could be because he knew she wasn't entirely human, because of the values of bronze blood…but there was something about her past. It was alluring. Because ordinary girls didn't just end up in Bahnen Nain for no reason.

And he was going to find out why.

Hoisting her to her feet, he pulled her by the arm, her body a complete dead weight. Pan eventually found himself hoisting her over his shoulders whilst trying to ignore the mixture of vomit and blood that was wafting over from her body.

He should've paid less for her.

When they got to the camp, Pan dumped her half-conscious body on the ground and called Felix over.

"Get her cleaned up," Pan ordered to the boy, staring at her rags in distain. "Then bring her to my room."

"But Pan –" Felix frowned at him, still in disbelief of what he had done. He'd simply ignored the last time he'd brought a girl to the island and gone and done it anyway.

But there was a darkness in Pan that Felix couldn't quite place; an emptiness if you would. His eyes had stared at the girl like she was dirt, and even though she was covered in it, beneath it, Felix could see that she was quite pretty.

And as he tucked one hand beneath her knees and one under her back, she whimpered through her unconsciousness. It was only when he sat her down in the shallows of the river and pulled out his hands that he realised his hand was coated in her blood.

The flowing water on her injuries seemed to have some effect on her state of consciousness, because after hissing in pain, she began to more actively move herself through the water. Felix went to push the rags from her, sitting on the rocks just behind her, but when he barely skimmed the shallowest of her cuts, the girl yelped and jumped away from him, further into the water.

Felix respected her wishes. Something terrible had happened to her, and he didn't want to damage the girl further, not before she went to Pan. So he turned and began to walk away. But after a few moments of hearing only the sound of the river rushing behind him, he turned around cautiously.

The girl was nowhere in sight.

Running back to the riverside, he saw that she hadn't run away, but was simply caught between two rock faces, drifting almost peacefully beneath the water.

It didn't take much for Felix to wade in waist deep and pull her limp body from beneath the rapids, hauling her onto dry land and watching her stillness. Beginning compressions on her chest, he tried to flush the water from her lungs, and within seconds, she was coughing up her lungs onto the dirt beside him and the boy breathed a sigh of relief, leaning backwards and slumping onto the ground. He tried to convince himself that he did it for Pan, but truth was, he didn't want her to die. It was a human kindness to save her.

But the girl was looking at him, resigned as she wiped away the water from her mouth. She looked completely bedraggled and intensely pale, but he couldn't help but think that was her usual colour. Either way, the look in her eyes, it wasn't one of thanks.

"What's your name?" Felix asked, trying to ignore what she had just attempted. Warning signs began then, but he ignored them. Above all, he was Pan's man. A girl was not going to come between them ever again.

"Zhanshi...Ella." The girl seemed to hesitate over her name. But Ella knew that Mei was gone. Here, she was no longer a soldier. She was a slave.

"Zhanshi Ella?" Felix's brow furrowed.

"Just Ella," the girl answered, shaking her head from side to side. "Ella Hart."

"Well then Ella Hart," Felix said, holding out his hand to help her to her feet. He ended up doing most of the work, as she had to lean on him when she stood up. "I'm Felix."

"I'm..."

Ella sighed aloud, but wouldn't let tears form in her eyes. The words went unsaid, but Felix couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl as she cut herself off. He knew what she was thinking, it was plain upon her face.

I'm never getting out of here.