Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon a Time or its characters. I only borrow.
Phoenix: About it always being night in Neverland – I've wondered the same. In Hook's flashbacks in Good Form (3x05) it was daytime, and I believe Gold's flashbacks in Think Lovely Thoughts (3x08) had daylight in it too. By my math, Captain and Lieutenant Jones would've landed in Neverland not long after Pan made it someplace other than a place of dreams. I've decided that either Pan decided it would be dark the whole time the rescue party was there, or his smug evil psychopathy infected the island to make it wholly unpleasant. I prefer the latter, since Pan's hold over the island was decreasing. I was hoping to get an explanation about that as well, but the show's writers apparently don't feel we need to know (or they didn't feel like coming up with an explanation for something written in for dramatic effect).
The morning started off mundane. Checkout went smoothly; Emma even remembered to grab the bags she had stashed in the dresser drawer. She activated two of the others phones and gave them to Hook and Henry after programming each other's numbers in all three. The diner where they ate breakfast had decent food, but Henry was quiet the entire time. His silence was full of glum resignation rather than annoyance or anger, though. I'm not even sure that's better.
Hook had tried to engage them in conversation with more stories, but Henry wasn't interested and Emma wasn't in the mood to be cheered up. She was currently trying to work out how to keep an eye on Henry while keeping him out of harm's way during their search. It's not like she could lock him in the car with the window cracked every time she needed to go somewhere and talk to someone. She trusted Hook enough to leave Henry with him, but she'd need Hook's help. Which meant that Henry would have to go with them, potentially exposing him to people who might sell them out to Pan (if he was actually looking for them; Emma wasn't willing to bet that he didn't want the heart of the truest believer anymore). I'm starting to think that neither Regina nor I considered all the options before we left.
Hook instead spent breakfast familiarizing himself with the cell phone.
The mundaneness wore off a little after breakfast; breaking into the apartment of a moody bounty hunter had that effect.
Emma had both Hook and Henry stand lookout at the door while she picked the lock.
"Not that I don't find this attractive, love, but aren't you worried about curious neighbors who may call the police upon seeing a woman breaking into an apartment?" Yes, that's why you and Henry are blocking their view.
"I'm not breaking in, I'm… knocking creatively," she told him as she got the lock to turn and opened the door. She stationed Hook at the end of the hallway and Henry at the door while she entered the apartment. If Kyrie was there (probably not, Emma had done some actual knocking first), it would be best if she saw that Emma was the unaccompanied when she broke in.
"Hey kid, what are you doing there?" The unfamiliar voice of a man sounded just outside the door.
"Waiting," Henry answered in a tone of voice that was neither friendly nor unpleasant.
"Waiting for who?" Emma imagined that the guy was narrowing his eyes in suspicion.
"My mom," Henry still had that matter-of-fact tone.
"Where's your mom?" Emma heard Hook's unmistakable footsteps walking towards them as the unfortunately observant person continued to question Henry.
"Visiting a friend." Bless that Henry. Don't give out more information than necessary when trying to avoid suspicion. Did I teach him that?
"Like hell, the woman in that apartment doesn't have friends." Busted. "Who's your mom?"
"Which one?" Emma barely kept from laughing. Henry not giving useful answers could easily be attributed to the obstinacy and defiance of an adolescent. He had also managed to not lie, mostly. 'Visiting a friend' was slightly inaccurate, but the best description of what she was doing other than 'breaking into an apartment to find a former colleague'.
"I'm calling the police now." She imagined that the eyes of suspicion had turned into eyes of annoyance by this point.
"I'm sure that's not necessary," Hook finally entered the conversation. Emma grabbed the spare key that she knew Kyrie kept taped to the bottom of her kitchen trash can and stepped outside, locking the door very obviously with the key.
"Alright she's not here; we should have time to set up for the party before she gets home, hello." She added to the stranger who had been questioning her son and was currently eyeing Hook (and his outfit) with trepidation. "Let's go get the decorations."
"Who are you?" Yep, suspicion and annoyance.
"I'm Emma; I'm a friend of Kyrie's."
"Kyrie doesn't have friends. What are you doing breaking into her apartment?" Emma sized the guy up as inconspicuously as possible. He apparently lived across the hall, as that door was cracked. He was tall, but lanky. Almost certainly not a physical threat. But it doesn't take muscles to press three numbers on a phone.
"I have a key," Emma protested, displaying it for him and sidestepping the friend thing. "We're throwing her a surprise costume party to celebrate a big catch she made."
"Kyrie hasn't been here in months." That's unfortunate in more ways than one.
"I know, she was chasing someone. Like I said, party to celebrate. She said she'd be home at eight, but she didn't specify AM or PM. Lucky for us, it wasn't AM. Actually, guys, why don't we figure out where everything will go before we bring it up? Otherwise I'm sure we'll just end up bringing a lot of it back down." She unlocked the door again and gestured inside.
"Costume party, huh?" The annoying stranger was still skeptical. I both applaud and growl in frustration at your lack of naivety and trustfulness. "What are you supposed to be?" The neighbor asked Hook as he passed by Emma.
Hook looked at the guy like he was an idiot. "Pirate," he said simply as he crossed through the doorway.
"Like I said, party about eight tonight. The more the merrier!" Emma said cheerfully as she shut the door in the stranger's face. She threw the deadbolt and put her back against the door for a moment, looking at Henry and Hook. "Good work," she said, ruffling Henry's hair.
"I agree. You excel at withholding information," Hook added with a smile. "It would appear this colleague of yours moved months ago."
"No, her stuff is all here. She might actually be on a job; she's been gone longer before." Emma could understand Hook's inference. Emma's apartment in Boston had been pretty bare. Just a place to sleep, as Mary Margaret had put it. Kyrie's apartment made that one look outrageously decorated in comparison. The bedroom had a bed, a nightstand with a lamp, and a bookshelf. The living room had a couch and a TV on a coffee table. The kitchen had cookware and dishes (none left unwashed in the sink, which alone would have been enough to tell Emma that Kyrie was gone) and a small table with two chairs. That was it. No pictures, no throw pillows, not even a rug. With the exception of the overflowing bookshelf, there wasn't a thing in the apartment that wasn't needed. Okay, maybe the TV, but Emma was willing to consider that a necessity.
Hook raised an eyebrow at her, and she could tell what he was thinking. His ship was homier than this place.
"I doubt we'll find anything useful, but let's take a quick look around."
Henry went straight for the bookshelf while Emma and Hook looked through cabinets and the closet. They even turned over the mattress. Nada. Not surprising, I didn't expect her to leave anything revealing behind.
"I think I have something!" Henry exclaimed. Or maybe she did… Which my son found… I am simultaneously proud and humbled.
Henry had pulled all the books off the shelf. He pointed at a small cloth bag which was taped to the back of the bottom shelf. He also held up a couple of books. "These were behind everything else." He handed them to Emma as Hook grabbed the bag.
These are much more advanced that Spelling for Dummies. "I think I was right about her knowing something about real magic," Emma said aloud. "Or, at least she thinks she does."
"No, I would wager she knows something real," Hook told them, showing them the contents of the bag. Emma and Henry both held expressions of incomprehension. Why the grim tone of voice? This is a good thing… Although I have no idea what those are.
"These," he pointed out a few crystals and herbs "are from the Enchanted Forest." He indicated a few others, which Emma and Henry were both now able to recognize. "These are from Neverland."
He didn't know the origin of the others. Emma supposed they could be from somewhere in this land, she was hardly knowledgeable on all the plants and crystals of her world. They could also be from another land altogether.
"So… She's been to other lands?" Henry asked.
"Or she knows someone who has," Emma confirmed. "Put the books back as you found them, as best you can." She held on to the magic books and the bag, though. They might come in useful. Hook grabbed her arm as she put them in her (thankfully large) purse.
"Not that I'm opposed to stealing, but given what you've told me about this Kyrie, I doubt she'll take the theft of her things lightly."
"I'm willing to risk it. I'll leave her a note. She'll have to find us if she wants them back, so at least it's more likely she'll call at some point." And hopefully the fact that she 'dislikes me less than most' will keep her from maiming me.
Hook still looked as though he didn't think it was the best idea. Smart man.
Emma wrote two notes as Henry put the books back. One she put on the bookshelf where the magic books had been, saying essentially 'yeah, sorry, needed to borrow these, call me if you want them back'. The other she left in the kitchen by the stove. That held the same 'call me' message as the others she would leave around town.
Leaving the apartment as close as possible to how they found it, Emma locked the door behind them as they left. "Alright, decorations time," she said as loudly as she could without being obvious. She could hear the annoying neighbor breathing behind his door. You should get your lungs checked, man. That sounds serious.
The upside of that trip, other than finding the magic stuff, was that Henry was nearly cheerful. He had gotten to lie (sort of) to an adult in order to protect the mission, and he had made the most (only) useful find at the apartment. Emma hoped that the rest of the day, which she knew would probably be very dull for him, wouldn't crush that.
She left letters at a dozen bars and shops around Boston before they stopped for lunch. She was really enjoying eating copious amounts of restaurant food on Regina's and Gold's dime.
"We'll leave for New York next," she told them. Much as she hoped that Kyrie would both contact her and be willing to help, she couldn't count on it. Time to act as though she didn't exist.
A/N: Reviews are candy and constructive criticism is a box of KIND bars (the dark chocolate cherry cashew type, yum).