An Ocean Between Us

Prologue

A/N: Hi! Welcome to my fic!! Thank you for taking a chance on this wonderful story! I am so incredibly proud of how this turned out, and I'm so excited to share it with you! As always, there's a bit of housekeeping to talk about before we dive in.

First, let's talk trigger warnings. This story features some violence. As always, I will warn before each chapter containing any violence. There is also quite a bit of abuse, both physical domestic abuse as well as mental and emotional. Basically every time a certain A*hole opens his mouth is quite abusive. As promised above, I will warn you before any physical domestic abuse, and just assume the mental and emotional abuse is present in most chapters. There is also a few instances of non-con and dub-con, none of which are between our favorite ladies, which goes without saying will be warned at the beginning of each chapter. It is also worth mentioning there are few instances of heterosexual sex. This is NOT a Killian friendly story, so if you're a big fan of him, maybe this isn't the story for you.

Second, I would like to thank Darbypea, the incredible artist that created the most absolutely beautiful piece of art for this story. Words can not express how beautiful it is and how grateful I am that they chose my story out of all the supernova stories to match with. Please go check it out on AO3!!!!

As always I do not own Once Upon a Time, nor any characters, locations or events associated with it. The story belongs to me, but the world belongs to them.

And now, without further ado, I happily and eagerly present "An Ocean Between Us"

Prologue

The world was spinning around her. Everything was fuzzy. Her head hurt. Her body hurt. Her lungs were on fire. She didn't know where she was and nothing made sense. The wind kissed her exposed flesh, causing goosebumps to form on her pale skin. She couldn't hear or see anything, and all she could do was focus on the pain that was radiating through her body, causing all of her muscles to contract at the same time.

After a few agonizing minutes, her hearing began to slowly return, and she could make out the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. She felt her body move, suddenly realizing she was being awkwardly pulled up the sand. That was when it finally registered in her exhausted brain that she wasn't alone. She tried to open her eyes, but they felt like they were made out of lead. With much effort, she eventually managed to pry one of her eyes open for a brief moment, to see the fuzzy figure of a dark-haired woman pulling her up the shore and away from the water. The woman grunted with frustration as she fought to pull her up the shore, tripping every few steps and falling into the sand as she continued to struggle under the dead weight of her nearly unconscious body.

Eventually, the slow movement stopped, and the woman collapsed into the sand next to her right side. The woman gasped for breath for a few moments before turning back to her. She felt the woman's hands behind her neck, carefully securing something in place. She could feel the object against the skin on her bare chest. It was small and light, but it was definitely there. The woman moved slightly, taking her right arm and placing it on her lap. The woman's legs were still wet and covered with sand, but all she could feel was the soft skin underneath. She tried to focus on the feeling of the woman softly cradling her arm, when she felt a sharp pain on her skin. The pain lasted a few seconds before fading into a dull ache. Her arm felt slightly wet with something thicker than water.

The woman gently placed her injured arm onto her stomach before shifting once again, this time to lay closer to her. She could feel the woman's lips grazing her ear as she whispered, "Don't forget me." Her voice sounded like that of an angel. She felt soft fingers laced between her own, their hands feeling like they were made to fit together, when a pair of soft lips pressed against her own, kissing her so tenderly while tiny drops of water landed on her cheek. She wanted to open her eyes, she wanted to open them so badly. She wanted to look at the woman who had just kissed her. She wanted to ask her who she was, and why she was pulling her up onto the beach. But before she could will her eyes open, the woman was gone. A loud splash indicated that the woman dove back into the ocean that she had just been pulled out of. She tried to sit up again, managing to open her eyes for a second as she managed to prop herself up on her elbows, but a blinding pain in her head caused her to faint, collapsing back onto the sandy beach beneath her.

She woke up hours later, the hot afternoon sun beating down on her still-exposed skin. The sound of seagulls squawking above her was deafening as it startled her into a conscious state. She looked around but saw nothing familiar. She touched her face, feeling a burning sensation against her warm skin. Her hair felt different as she ran her fingers through it. Something felt off with it, but she couldn't figure out why. She looked down to see her naked body, her pale skin turning bright red from the sun. She looked at her legs, and once again, something looked wrong. Something looked very very wrong with her legs, but again she couldn't figure out what it was. She looked around, frantically trying to find something familiar. Something to tell her where she was. But all she saw was a world she had never seen before. She tried to stand, collapsing back onto the sand as soon as her legs felt any sort of weight. She tried again, only to end up right back where she started. Three more attempts later, she was able to stand up, putting her full weight on her legs for the first time. She attempted to take a small step, walking toward nothing in particular. She only made it ten steps before she collapsed again, this time her face landed straight into the hot sand.

The last thing she heard before the world went dark once again was a strangely deep and unfamiliar voice. "Hey, are you okay, love?"