Once Upon a Time in Storybrooke - OUAT DR

Chapter 7 - Shadow Captures Shadow

With Neal now safe (and not dead) we gathered back at our camp to make a plan and figure out how to get off this bloody island. 

Neal informed us that the way he left Neverland as a boy was by using Peter Pan's Shadow - he could navigate the stars but not fly, which is why the Shadow was needed. Neal then informed our little group that we had to capture Peter Pan's shadow, despite being unable to get within ten feet of him unless he wanted it, as Emma pointed out. Killian spoke up and told us that Pan's Shadow was rarely with him, and was an entity unto itself, able to carry out Pan's will from miles away. We would need to hunt it down and capture it.

Neal knew where to look for the Shadow, and he and Emma volunteered to go after it. I spoke up and said I would go too, not willing to be apart from my twin if we were going to split up. Killian did the same, claiming we could use another veteran of the island and even out the odds given the trek wouldn't be an easy one, although I'm sure everyone suspected it was because I was going. (Which may or may not have been true, I suppose). 

I didn't miss the look Neal and Emma cast between them at our interjection and our parents' agreement that it was a good idea for the pirate and me to go with them. While the four of us went to capture the Shadow David and Snow would travel back to Tink's place and let her know we had an escape plan, see if she really would make good on her promise to get us into Pan's camp so we could rescue Henry.

The group agreed to get rest before heading out to hunt Pan's shadow. I found a spot and unrolled my bedroll and Killian, unsurprisingly, laid his right next to mine, just as he had every time we'd made camp since we met. Now that everyone knew we'd kissed we were receiving even more looks than we'd been getting and it took everything in me not to move away from the camp entirely so they couldn't see me at all.

Nobody mentioned the Echo Caves outright at least and for that, I was eternally grateful. I was neither ready nor willing to have those conversations yet. 

As everyone else got settled in I noticed Snow still hadn't talked to David yet, and Neal and Emma were acting weird. I turned away from my family and their issues and met the eyes of my own issues. 

Killian, with eyes as blue as the sea, was lying not even a foot away, looking at me in a way I wasn't sure I'd ever seen him look at me before, or maybe I had just never noticed (or allowed myself to notice). 

I wanted to say something to him, to acknowledge that I had heard his secret back in the Echo Caves and knew what it meant, the significance of it, but after a few long moments of silence I still hadn't found the right words to say. Killian looked like he, too, was on the verge of speaking, but the silence stretched on between us. Finally, I got my mouth to cooperate and told him I was glad to hear that his heart was open to finding love once more - not giving him the chance to say anything more before closing my eyes and willing sleep to claim me quickly before I said anything else. 

The next morning, before we left, Emma had a discussion with our mom about her silent treatment of David, which had been going on since his confession in the Echo Caves. Emma could understand why David had lied, while I had reacted very similarly to our mom and her anger, believing his choice was selfish when I'd found out about it that day. Funny, how we took after our parents in different ways. I had nowhere to talk though, I had known he'd been poisoned, cured, and lied about it - I hadn't known he'd be forced to stay in Neverland - but still, I hadn't told anyone either. 

Snow tried to talk with me about the secret I had revealed but I told her not here, not in this place, before walking off and I heard Emma tell her to let it go for now and wait until we made it back home.

Hook, Neal, Emma, and I all headed to Neal's cave hideout to get the last things we needed to catch the Shadow. Emma and I went to get the star map while Neal and Killian seemed to be having 'a talk'. Emma and I joked they were probably gossiping to each other about us when they should be focused on the mission. Once we had gotten the star map and returned Neal told us he was going to trap the Shadow in the coconut and we needed to go to some place called the Dark Hollow - the darkest part of the island. Great, lovely. The Dark Hollow was a place so horrible that even Hook had avoided it during all his years spent here in Neverland. That was where the shadows lived.