Set Your Sails...to Neverland || Peter Pan, OUAT

Chapter 16 - One Year Later in Storybrooke

~ Davina

A year has passed since I woke up in Storybrooke, and, no luck. I haven't found a trace of the ship. There should have been objects that would have floated up from the ship when it sunk, or scattered across the seabed. Gold would have gotten hold of them, but, nothing.

- - -

After a long, slow, and quiet day at work, I'm finally on my way home. A one-bedroom cottage near the beach that Regina found for me, giving me a shred of dignity back after living at Granny's for too long. Although, I will never say no to a stack of her pancakes and hot chocolate.

I decide to take the longer route home along the beach. It's mid-afternoon, and even though it's winter, the sun is shining brightly, combatting the icy air. I'm submerged in my thoughts, still wondering why the ship is nowhere to be found, trying to figure out what I've missed when a blast of iridescent light hits me and almost knocks me off my feet. When I regain my balance, I look up to see a rolling cloud of purple smoke. My eyes widen as it looms over me and I recall the last time it happened. Twenty-nine years ago, trapped in that stupid cell. The Curse.

"Not again," I say to myself just before I cover my head as it engulfs me.

When I next look up, nothing has changed, at least not that I can immediately notice. I'm still in Storybrooke. Was it the same curse? Or something else? Is it going to make things better, or worse? More importantly, what the hell did I miss for the curse to be broken, a new one cast?

I break into a run to check on everyone in town, and pick up scraps of recent events as I find my friends. I find out Henry has been in a coma after accidentally eating Regina's apple turnover that she actually meant for Emma because it contained slices of the apple that she had placed the sleeping curse on for Snow White back in the Enchanted Forest and she'd got it by reaching through the Mad Hatter's hat and getting it from him. I take a deep breath.

I leave them alone for five bloody minutes!

I continue running until I reach the middle of town, where the townspeople are frantic. There are tears of shock, joy, fear, despair. Some embrace, others are shouting angrily at each other, and the rest wander with their eyes unseeing and glazed over. I hear a name yelled across the square, but not from this realm. Their memories must be back. And now they are overwrought with two minds crammed into one head – two lives, two sets of memories, two names, two identities – I have to slalom through the crowd so I don't get trampled on. I have no idea where everyone is running to, but I know that I need to go in the opposite direction, at least for now. Where do I need to go? The hospital. I need to check that Henry is okay. Not only is he like family to me now, but if the curse has been broken, then Pan could be on his way at any moment. As I turn the corner by the clock tower, I come face to face with Mary Margaret and David, aka Prince Charming, who turned out to be in a deep coma in hospital and was woken up by Mary Margaret...long story short, he's alive.

"Davina!" They exclaim as they make eye contact with me.

That's right! They should remember me now, as the pirate girl sleeping in the forest with no idea in which direction to go in to get to the Dark Palace. Before I can respond, they hug me tight.

"We're so sorry for not remembering you!" Mary Margaret...or Snow...says.

As soon as she says the words, memories of the day I ran into the both of them in the centre of Storybrooke come flooding back.

~ Six months ago ~

I walk down the street, carrying a paper bag with an assortment of pastries wrapped in paper and a paper cup of coffee in the other. I've grown fond of the drink after Granny had given me a cup. I'm thinking about what I have to do for work tomorrow and not paying attention to where I'm going, when I almost collide with two people. I look up.