Emma couldn't believe she'd ever taken the sun for granted before she ended up in Neverland. It was bright, warm, and when it rose every day, it was the promise of a new day filled with hope and renewal.

Even if the new days she'd had in the past hadn't been the best. Even if she'd been stuck in the foster system, at least the foster system had days and an opportunity to grow up and wasn't just full of chaotic, animalistic boys that radiated evil the way the sun radiated warmth.

"It's been so long since I've felt the sun," Tink said, jumping as if trying to fly closer to the warmth. "I can't believe you actually let me escape with you."

"Come on, Tink. You helped us plan our escape. We weren't going to just leave you there," Baelfire said as he adjusted his own small bag and hauled it over his shoulder. "You deserved to be free just like Emma and I."

Emma nodded in agreement and adjusted the straps on her backpack. "Let's head into Storybrooke and see exactly where we've ended up. I wonder how long I've been gone…" The thought of time having gone on while she'd been stuck in that nightmare was a terrifying one, but one she needed to come to terms with.

She just hoped it hadn't been a hundred years, like Baelfire.

"I wonder what it's like there," Baelfire said.

"Hopefully we'll be able to crash there for a while. Get some money and find a park to sleep in. Oh, and we're going to have to figure out names for the two of you. Baelfire and Tinkerbell aren't going to blend in here."

Tink seemed offended, but Baelfire nodded in understanding. "What sort of names?"

Emma bit her lip. "Well, maybe Tink and I can be cousins or something, since we're both blonde." She paused again and glanced at Tink. "What about something like Rosetta? Rosetta Swan?"

Tink paused, as if thinking, then nodded. "Rosetta… I like it! If I had to pick a human name I guess I'd pick something like that. Reminds me of the flower garden I used to reside in in Misthaven."

"What's Misthaven?"

"Oh, it's the kingdom I'm from."

Emma froze in place, forcing Tink and Baelfire to stop as well. "You're… not from Neverland?"

Tink shook her head. "Of course not. Pure magic like fairy magic would never be able to grow there. I was banished there, because all I wanted to do was help a queen find her true love, who was not the king. The Blue Fairy banished me to Neverland after she took most of my magic."

"The - the one from Pinocchio?" Emma croaked.

"What's Pinocchio?" Tink asked with a confused frown.

Emma sighed. "It's nothing. Just a story parents tell their kids to keep them from lying. A guy builds a puppet out of wood and the Blue Fairy enchants it to become real. His nose grows whenever he tells a lie."

"That seems rather tame for a children's bedtime story. Aren't there any that involve the children going off to fight an ogre if they don't finish their chores?" Bae asked.

"What? What kind of fucked up stories did you grow up with?"

Baelfire shook his head. "It wasn't a story. Not totally. The dukedom I lived in had a terrible problem with ogres… to the point where the Duke was sending children off to fight."

Emma groaned. "Don't tell me you're a fairytale character too. I'm still trying to wrap my head around Peter Pan and Neverland being real."

"I don't know how to answer that."

That wasn't at all helpful, but Emma sighed a little. "You guys are going to need a lot of education about the future." Hopefully they hadn't been dumped into what she would consider the future, or they were all screwed.

"I'm sure it'll be fine!" Baelfire said. "It's not the first time I've been in the Land Without Magic, and I picked up what I needed to know before, so I can do it again, and we'll both help Tink!"

Emma sighed. "Just follow my lead. I won't steer you wrong." Mostly because if they were steered wrong, it would screw her over too.

And, as much as she never wanted to go back to Neverland, she really, really didn't want to go back into the foster system.

"How about Neal, for my name? Neal uhh… Cassidy? I remember seeing those names in books before," Bae suggested.

Tink grinned and clapped her hands. "I love it! Rosetta Swan and Neal Cassidy!"

Emma paused again. "We're going to need to figure out a backstory. Maybe… maybe we're escaping from an abusive situation." It wasn't technically a lie. "And the only possessions we have are what we managed to fit in our backpacks."

"Oooh, escaping from a pirate - "

"Future lesson number one: There are no pirates here." Emma did not even want to question why Hook had been the first person to pop into Tink's mind when thinking of their backstory. "The pirate era died out centuries ago. Let's just say we helped you escape from a horrible ex. It's more believable that way."

"No magic and no pirates? This world sounds boring," Tink said with a frown.

Emma sighed softly. "Yeah well, sorry, but that's the best we've got."

"What about a fire?" Baelfire asked softly. "That way they don't think anyone could be coming after us. But if we say our carriage caught fire while we were on the road…"

"It's car now, not carriage, but you're right, that might be easier," Emma agreed, before she paused, glancing at her companions again. "Tink, you might want to change before we make it to town. I'll see what I have in my bag…"

"What's wrong with what I've got on?" Tink questioned with an offended look.

Bae shrugged helplessly. "You look like you're wearing a costume. No one dressed like that when I lived in the Land Without Magic."

"He's right," Emma said, pulling out a pair of black sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt. They were technically her pajamas, but it would do in a pinch. At least she didn't have to somehow find a pair of shoes, or they'd be screwed - she'd only brought one pair of boots with her when she'd packed her bag from the last foster home she'd been at. "Here, put this on. Hopefully in town we can find more clothes." She wasn't above going to a homeless shelter now that she had others with her. Worse came to worse, she could teach them the art of shoplifting.

Baelfire's outfit, at least, while not exactly standard for a teenage boy of the 1990s, at least contained pants, a shirt, a jacket, and a pair of shoes.

When Tink had changed into Emma's clothes they found the town of Storybrooke itself. As she took a close look of her surroundings, Emma sighed a little in relief. It didn't look like it was too far into the future. No flying cars or hoverboards to be found.

Storybrooke seemed to be a relatively small town, which wasn't exactly great, but at least it was civilization and it had buildings to sleep in insead of the ground or a tree. They could probably stay here for a few days before mapping out their next plan of attack.

"This town is much smaller than London," Bae said. "But bigger than the village I lived in before. I like it!"

Emma smiled weakly and glanced at a map when they approached the visitor's center. Maine. So they had landed in Maine. It wasn't a state she'd been to yet - Minnesota had been the last place she'd been, and it had ended terribly with Ingrid trying to shove her in front of a car.

She shuddered at the thought.

"Emma, are you okay?" Bae asked. "I can give you my jacket - "

"I'm fine, but thanks," she said, glancing at the map again and grabbing one of the free maps and brochures from the stand. "Are you guys hungry? It looks like there's a diner nearby we can get some food at."

Bae nodded in agreement. "Sounds like a good idea. It'll be nice to have food that didn't come from Pan's camp."

"You're not kidding."

Tink hummed, looking at the buildings. "I wonder if there's a place that serves mead around here."

If Emma hadn't already lived in Neverland, that would have been the thing to make her realize fairy tales were, apparently, real. "I don't think anyone serves mead anymore. They have, like, proper alcohol now."

"You shouldn't know that… you're so young to be drinking."

"I don't drink. Other people in my past have," she replied with a roll of her eyes. "Besides, it's not hard to just look at the liquor aisle if you're in a store."

Baelfire blinked, looking a little confused himself.

"Ugh, never mind," Emma said as she pushed open the door to the diner. The scent of grease and fatty foods was heavenly and made her stomach rumble as she looked around. This must have been the main hub of the town.

"Anywhere you wanna sit!" the old woman at the counter called.

They sat in a far corner, away from the hustle of the main diner and the regulars that were having lively conversations with the wait staff and the old woman. The problem with small towns, Emma had found out over her life, was that everyone knew everyone, and strangers were usually regarded with suspicion. They needed to spend as little time here as possible and move onto what was preferably a bigger city. If they were in Maine, the only one she could think of was Augusta…

Emma grabbed the menus and slid them over to her companions. "The waitress will ask what you want to drink first. If you don't think any of that looks good, just ask for water," she explained.

They seemed to understand, so Emma relaxed a little and scanned the menu. She was never going to take diner food for granted ever again. Greasy, yet filling and really bad for you, but how could she care after what she just escaped?

"Emma," Baelfire whispered, leaning forward and pointing at something on the menu. "What's a hamburger?"

This was going to be so much harder than she thought.

"It's a bunch of flattened ground beef with toppings on it," she sighed. "If it doesn't sound good, just order a chicken sandwich." She knew they had chicken in the Victorian Era. There wasn't much she remembered about school, but people in England did raise chickens. She was sure of that.

A waitress with long dark hair with red streaks, wearing her shirt in a way Emma had a feeling wasn't it wasn't meant to be worn sauntered up to their table with a bored sigh. "Welcome to Granny's. What can I get you to drink?"

"A coke," Emma said without hesitation.

"Um, water, please," Baelfire said.

The waitress nodded and looked at Tink. "And what about you?"

Tink frowned and stared at the list of drinks. "Can I ask a question?"

"Uh, sure, I guess. I'll try to answer it if I can."

"What's lemonade?"

Emma barely restrained herself from banging her head against the table. She never thought she would have to explain something like lemonade to someone. Even if TInkerbell was apparently from a fantasy world that wasn't Neverland.

The waitress seemed undeterred though, giving Tink a bright smile. "Ohhh, you sound like you're from Australia. I've heard you don't have lemonade there. It's basically sweetened lemon juice with a little bit of water in it to make it less sour. I'll bring you a cup on the house. Just don't tell Granny," she said with a wink. "I'll bring you some water too in case you don't like it."

"Sure!"

"If you have any other questions let me know. My name's Ruby."

When Ruby had gone, only then did Emma let out a sigh of relief. Not even she had known Australia didn't have lemonade. They'd gotten lucky there, but that didn't mean it would happen again.

"She seems nice," Tink said. "Maybe we can recruit her to our cause."

"What cause, Tink? People in this world don't believe in fairy tales. If you told her you were Tinkerbell she'd call a psychiatrist on you."

"A what?"

Baelfire looked up in alarm. "Oh, I know what those are. They're doctors that study the brain and electrocute it if they think you've lost your mind."

Right. He lived in the Victorian era at one point.

"That's… not really a thing anymore, Bae. The electrocution part, anyway. Most of the time they put you on medication. Or they keep you in a hospital. Which is still not fun, from what I've heard."

She'd watched one of her foster sisters be taken to a psychiatric facility. She wondered if she should write her a letter and ask how she was doing - her foster father had thrown the address in the trash the day it happened and Emma had squirreled it away - it wasn't like he'd miss it.

Emma sighed a little and carefully zipped open her backpack. "We have to stick to the story we came up with - that our car burned down and we were left with only what's in the backpacks. I should have enough money to pay for lunch but…"

Granny's was a diner. At least it would have food in the dumpsters out back. If they were lucky they would be able to find some food without it being too out of date. They couldn't risk getting sick, and especially sick enough that would require a doctor or hospital.

Slowly, she opened the small makeup bag she'd been using to squirrel away money from her last terrible foster family - it had only been about a thousand bucks, enough for her to get somewhere and try to settle down, but with two more people added, that money was going to be spent much faster.

She reached in to grab what she thought they'd need for lunch, but paused when her hand brushed against several small pieces of plastic and paper. Her own I.D and social security card were in here, but she only had one copy of both.

Wrapping her fist around the cards and the bills, Emma withdrew her hand and zipped the bag back up. She chanced a glance down at her fist and saw Tink's photo staring up at her.

What?

Emma shifted again, enough to put the bills into her pocket and glance a little more closely at the cards in her hand. There were and social security cards for both Bae and Tink, though Tink's identification was Australian.

Had Pan managed to -

No, she didn't want to think about it. They had important documents. That was all she cared about.

Ruby returned moments later, carefully placing the drinks down in front of them. "You know what you want to eat?"

"A burger with the works, medium rare, and onion rings, please," Emma said.

"Uh… grilled chicken sandwich please."

"You want fries with it?"

He hesitated for a moment, before he slowly nodded. "Um… yes please."

If Ruby was suspicious of Neal's hesitation, she thankfully didn't say anything and moved on to Tink with no questions asked.

"Um. The garden salad with raspberry dressing."

Good. That wouldn't take much in terms of explaining.

"Sounds good. It'll be up soon," Ruby said. "Enjoy the lemonade."

When she left again, Bae took a deep breath. "Maybe we should just stay here. I mean, why bother trying to run anymore? Pan isn't going to come after us again." He was leaving something unspoken, but Emma preferred it that way at the moment.

"I don't know," she sighed. "I've never liked small towns. Everyone knows everyone and are in each other's business…"

As if eager to prove Emma's point, Ruby sauntered back to the table. "So I don't remember seeing you three in Storybrooke before. You new here?"

"Our car caught fire outside of town," Bae said. "We only managed to grab what we've got in these bags before the explosion."

Ruby stared in horror. "Oh my God, how horrible, I'm so sorry!"

"Yeah, thanks," Emma said with a frown.

"So what are you guys gonna do now?"

Tink shrugged. "We haven't decided yet."

Ruby's eyes widened again in horror. "Gosh, I can't imagine. Don't you have anyone you can call? We have a phone - "

Emma shook her head. "We're each other's family."

"Ruby!" the old woman snapped from the counter, suddenly breaking the solemn mood that had fallen over the table. "Order up!"

Ruby sighed. "Coming, Granny!"

Emma watched her go to the window, putting plates on a tray and taking it over to a family sitting in the large corner booth of the diner. Two adults and three children chatting eagerly about the day they had planned, she was sure. It was a picture-perfect look at the American Dream.

And Emma hated that she would never get that. Hated that she was too old to ever get adopted and have the slice of American Dream that had been pushed down her throat ever since she could remember.

A plate suddenly slid in front of her, breaking her from her thoughts. She glanced up, surprised to find the old woman from the counter handing them their food.

"Alright, here's some ketchup and mustard," Granny said, before she rested her hand on the table. "My granddaughter tells me you guys might need a place to stay."

"Ruby's your granddaughter?" Baelfire asked.

"She is, and sometimes she overshares what customers tell her," Granny replied with a roll of her eyes. "But if you kids are in need of help, I want to help you."

Emma's stomach suddenly felt sour. "Help us how?"

Granny placed the tray on her hip. "I also own a bed and breakfast. I'd be willing to give you a room there for free, however… I could also do with some help both there and here. Cleaning, gardening, that sort of thing. If you agree to work, you'll have free lodging."

"Seriously?" Emma asked, her eyes widening in surprise. "There's no catch?"

"Well there will be some rules established, of course. Respecting quiet hours, no drinking, no smoking, that sort of thing," Granny said. "What do you say?"

This was a little overwhelming and exactly why she didn't like small towns.

"Um, can we have a bit of time to think about it?" Tink asked, clearly catching on to Emma's unease. "This is all very sudden."

"Yeah, sure. We'll be here until nine," Granny said before leaving them alone.

Baelfire waited until she'd gone back to the counter before speaking. "It really is a good deal, Emma. I don't know where else we can go that would be so welcoming to us." He leaned forward and lowered his voice. "I literally had to break into the Darling house in order to get help. They didn't just find me in the streets or something. I was stealing bread."

Emma bit her lip. He was right, it was probably the best - possibly the only - offer they were going to get, and money was going to be tight, so they wouldn't be able to afford to pay for a hotel or some other accommodation, and she had no idea what they would be able to find in Augusta.

She sighed and took a bite out of an onion ring. "Alright… yeah, you're right. This is the best offer we're going to get." And Storybrooke being a small town would make it easier to explain things about the future to Tink and Bae.

Tink took charge when went up to the register to pay for their lunch. "We've decided to take you up on your offer, Granny."

Granny smiled as she took her apron off and draped it on a nearby hook before leading them through the back of the diner and into the connecting bed and breakfast. "Alright then. Let's get you your room keys. You want a forest view or a square view?"

"Square, please," Emma said, to no protest. They'd seen enough forests to last a lifetime.

"Alright then," Granny replied and grabbed a few keys off the wall behind her.

Emma pretended not to notice the amount of dust hanging from the keys and on the wall behind them. Did no one ever come here?

"I'll let you guys have the day to relax and get to know the town a little bit," Granny said, bringing Emma's focus back on her new reality. "But I expect you guys to be down here at six-thirty tomorrow morning."

That night, while Bae and Tink got engrossed in a marathon of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Emma stood by the window, looking out at the town. Admittedly, it was a cute enough town, she supposed, and everything seemed to be within walking distance of each other. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to stay here, to start a life here.

As she turned away from the window, the clock at the center of town moved for the first time in fourteen years.

Surprise! I've decided to turn this into a multichapter fic! I hope you enjoy the ride!