A/N: So close to the end guys! Also, I just realised I have more time than I thought because I technically hit Christmas earlier than most of you, I can still finish before you guys hit Christmas. =P

Hope you're enjoying! Thanks for the reviews guys! They're spurring me to write quickly. =P

Enjoy! xx

Caring

Killian walked into his washroom to find Ella naked with a sponge on her neck, washing away the evidence of their fun that had lasted hours into yesterday afternoon, and taken up a decent amount of time in the early morning. She was standing beside the bath, water dripping down her body as she absentmindedly hummed under her breath.

"Are you going to just stand there, or do I have to put you to work?" she asked as Killian watched her with growing lust in his eyes. Despite the intense lovemaking of the night before, he was still up for another round. And Ella felt it as he came to stand behind her, pressing his naked and aroused body into her back as he stole the sponge from her.

"Doesn't this remind you of the first night you spent in my bed?" Hook whispered into her ear. Immediately she shivered, remembering the warmth of his body as he held her in his sleep. That first night of innocence when he was just comfort.

And now, he was so much more.

She felt herself moaning as he reach around her and swirled the sponge around her breast, the water drying on her nipples and leaving them hard and her body wanting the man behind her once again.

"Killian," she murmured in need. His hand was swirling down her stomach, and the sponge was quickly abandoned, thrown back into the bath from which it came as he delved lower and began to rub against her with his hand. She leaned into him, feeling his hardness against her and whimpered again.

Killian kissed along her shoulder as he parted her legs and began to nudge himself inside her slowly. She moaned as he did, taking hold of the arm wrapped around her front in order to steady herself as a wave of pleasure began to roll through her. Hook took her slowly and tenderly, his hand caressing her flesh as he felt her body bending into his touch.

"Hook! Ella! Where are you? I –"

Wendy's voice came as the cabin's door was opened. Hook and Ella froze, knowing the door to the washroom was wide open. But Wendy's footsteps abruptly stopped and turned away, however not before the girl could see anything that would scar her for life.

"I feel like everyone's at it like rabbits this morning," she groaned from around the corner. She was thankful they were facing the other way, at least she didn't see any unwanted body parts. Still. Ella and Hook naked – having sex.

She shivered before remembering what she'd come for.

"Finish it up quickly guys! Life or death situation out here." The door snapped shut and Ella and Hook were left alone again.

Ella moved to pull away from Hook with a frown on her face but he merely murmured into Ella's ear, "She did tell us to finish."

"Quickly," Ella replied back before abruptly bending over to grasp a hold of the edge of the tub and change the angle of Hook within her. He groaned as he more urgently began to thrust into Ella, taking her more roughly than he would have like to, but nevertheless, bringing them to the edge and over as quickly as he possibly could.

Stepping backwards and separating themselves, Ella turned round and planted a soft chaste kiss on his lips before reaching for her clothes and him for his own. Within minutes they were dressed and outside, met by an entourage of people.

"What's going on?" Ella asked warily. Tom, Tink and Wendy were deep in conversation and a crew of new sailors were lined up behind them.

"Pan's gone missing," Tink explained quickly. "I need that enchanted compass of yours to figure out where he is. I have the strangest feeling he's in Neverland, but I'm not willing to bet my life on that. So, with this pixie dust I can locate him, and there should be enough to get us back to whatever realm. If you please..."

Ella was back in Hook's cabin within a moment, rummaging through his desk drawer for the compass. She was trying not to think about how much she urgently needed to find where Pan was. She'd felt better when she at least knew that he was with Wendy, but there was something darker at work here, and she was incredibly fearful for his safety.

Upon snapping the drawer shut, the compass sitting in her hand, she looked up to find Hook leaning against the door, watching her carefully. His blue eyes followed her every movement, but there was no apprehension in them and no questioning loathing.

"You're coming with us?" Ella asked incredulously. Stepping around the desk to meet him at the door. "I thought you'd be glad to be shot of him."

"I would be, love," Hook said, tracing his hand down through her hair as he gazed lovingly at her. "But you care for him, and if I were any kind of gentleman, I'd help you save someone you care about."

"And you're always a gentleman." Ella rolled her eyes as he pulled her in by her waist and kissed her passionately until she ran out of breath.

"Aye love." He smirked at her when she pulled away to refill her lungs. "That I am."

9 Years Ago

Felix was sitting by the river when he first saw Nevi again.

She formed before him in all her ethereal glory as the spirit of Neverland, shocking him backwards with rapid movements of fear. That was, until he realised exactly who she was.

"How is this possible?" he murmured his first words, trying to see through Nevi's eyes. But they were no longer warm and brown, instead, they remained a harsh gold, staring straight through him like she new every secret that had ever passed through the fabric of the world.

"I became the spirit of Neverland, Felix," Nevi explained, moving closer towards him through the air. "My body became irrelevant, my soul, taken with stories and imagination, became my lifeline, and tied me to the core of the world. Girls shouldn't be brought to Neverland, Felix. This is what they become."

"You mean, this has happened before?" Felix had never seen anyone like Nevi before.

"The Spirit of Neverland that came before me had been trapped for almost a thousand years," Nevi breathed out a sigh. It had already been forty-one years and she was tiring of it. All she lived for now was to see Pan suffer. Soon, she reminded herself, soon. "I took her place and she vanished into atoms. I've been with you all along Felix. You've heard me, haven't you?"

You've done well, my love.

"You told me to leave Ella to Pan's devices." Felix looked up at Never with a little confused horror hidden behind his grey eyes.

"She'll heal in time, Felix," Nevi spoke to him with a tenderness that didn't reach her eyes. "Pan, however, you know what he did to her; what he's still doing to her."

"She belongs to him," Felix reasoned, trying to ease his own guilt.

"That doesn't make it right," Nevi said, playing with Felix's mind. "Think about who you place your loyalty in, my love." It almost pained her to keep calling the boy that. But she had to if this was to work. She needed him on her side. Pan didn't deserve to be king.

Pan deserved to have his heart ripped out. Exactly like he'd done to her.

When Nevi leaned down to place the barest whisper of a kiss on Felix's lips, he closed his eyes, trying to imagine that he could stay with her forever. But then she disappeared, and Felix was left to walk back to camp, an indeterminate sense of longing filling his being.

Pan's slave was carrying what looked to be an entire tree branch in her arms as she headed back into camp.

"Ella," Felix said, still speaking to her with a kindness that she had long since abandoned.

"What, Felix?" she said harshly, dumping the firewood on the ground as she turned to face him. Her face didn't even harden upon seeing him, it seemed to be its natural state nowadays. Felix flinched at the disdain in her voice and the bruises he spotted flowering along her neck and arms. The minute she saw where his eyes were headed, he expected her to pull her cloak closer around her body, but she did nothing. She just let them show for the world to see.

Because it didn't even matter anymore.

"I just, I wanted to say that I…"

"If you're going to say sorry, save it." Ella frowned at him and began to walk away. But when Felix went to pull her back to stop her, she flinched and pulled out of his touch, taking a few steps out of his reach and reached for something in her pants.

Within seconds, Ella was staring at Felix, watching the blood soak across his shirt as the hilt of her dagger stuck out from his stomach. His mouth was opening and closing like a fish, too horrified to even say a word. He collapsed to his knees.

"Hey Felix, where have you – what – "

Ella spun around with her second dagger in her hand and before Pan had even had a chance to question it, he too was nursing a stab wound through his gut. With a loud groan, he pulled the blood soaked blade from his body and stared at it venomously, his hand automatically moving to heal the wound.

He threw the blade aside as Ella realised the foolishness of her actions

"Maybe you've got more uses to me after all, E," Pan said, eyeing her carefully as he limped over to Felix in order to heal him too. Pan's wound was already on the mend, Felix however, was slowly becoming paler with blood loss and seemed incredibly relieved when Pan's magic began to flow between the two of them. When they were both relatively healed, Felix was looking up at Pan with grateful loyalty, reaffirming his place once more, in Felix's mind. And Ella - well, when he turned to her, he no longer saw the fragile slave. In her, he saw a dangerous enemy, and an even more dangerous friend.

Pan turned on Ella, eyeing her curiously. "Where did you get the knives?"

Ella still would not speak to him. She had once, after that one night, surmising her entire life's story into five minutes. But since then, there had only been silence.

Pan grasped her wrist tightly, her wince visible as he pressed down on the already bruised area. "I'll ask you again. Where did you get the knives."

"I made them," Ella muttered lowly, through gritted teeth, staring at Pan defiantly. He merely smirked.

"Ah," he breathed, his eyes darkening. "Fire."

And with that he dragged her up to his room and threw her onto his bed. However, he didn't jump on top of her immediately and Ella grew disconcerted by his position, watching her from his desk. He had his arms crossed, eyeing her curiously.

"If I were to give you a contract with particular benefits that let you out of this," he waved his hand around his room, "On occasion. Would you consider?"

Ella's heart leapt before she realised just exactly who she was talking to and shook her head in the negative. No.

"Shame," he murmured, moving towards her.

"Wait!" she exclaimed, thinking about the alternative of agreeing. "Is this because of the knives?"

"You could be valuable," Pan shrugged, sitting on the edge of the bed. "In more ways than one."

"You want me to what, make weapons –"

"I want you to work for me," Pan said, his eyes shining. "I know about your training, and I'll let you start again if you want. More freedom, more weapons. You just have to sign a contract."

"Isn't this enough of a contract for you?" Ella ran her hand over the gold band around her arm and Pan looked at it curiously before saying, "No. This contract is binding. Completely. You will have to do as I say. But I will give you freedom in Neverland in return."

"I can leave the camp?"

Pan nodded before a contract appeared from thin air, outlining exactly what her duties were. It could be narrowed down to four basic principles.

"I will do your will," she read curiously. "I won't fight you, nor attack you or challenge you."

"So I guess the real question is," Pan was running his hand down her arm, leering at her unpleasantly as he whispered into her ear, "Can you do that E?"

Ella didn't take a second longer to hesitate, and signed it.