Never Letting Go || CS

Chapter 28: The Map

By morning, the ship had reached Neverland's shore. Emma stepped foot onto the sand and took a look around. As far as she could see there was a dense entanglement of trees, plants and vines covering the island. Emma stepped towards the thick greenery, but was abruptly pulled back by a metal hook around her wrist. "Please don't wander off, Swan. It's not safe."

"Okay, sorry." Emma smiled as she turned back around and waited for the rest of the crew to vacate the ship.

In all honesty, Emma was scared for this journey. Not because of the stories she'd heard about Pan, but because of the gut feeling she had that something was going to go wrong. She tried her best to ignore it, for everyone's sake. Besides, she had no right to stop Hook from saving his friend. Still, she could not shake the feeling, as hard as she tried.

Killian handed out weapons to everyone, so Emma had a sword strapped to her side.

Once everyone was ashore, Killian took Emma's hand and interlaced their fingers. He gave her hand and reassuring squeeze, and she returned it with a small smile. "Everyone follow me, and make sure you stay together." Killian ordered loudly, before stepping into the dense undergrowth, pulling Emma behind him softly.

They'd been walking for hours now, and it was late afternoon. Everyone was tired and hungry, but Hook refused to stop, claiming that they needed to get as far as possible before nightfall.

One of the men towards the back of the group began singing an old sea shanty.

Stormie's gone, the good old man, to my aye storm along.

Oh, stormie's gone, that good old man; Aye, aye, aye, Mister storm a-long.

He started. Then a few more men joined in.

They dug his grave with a silver spade, to my aye storm a-long!

The shroud of finest silk was made; Aye, aye, aye, Mister storm a-long.

Now everyone had joined in, including Hook and Emma as they marched on, further and further into the forest.

Eventually they stopped when it started to get dark, and set up camp. They made a fire that they were all sat around silently. Emma and Hook were sat together, their backs against a boulder. Emma's head was rested on Killian's shoulder, and Killian's head rested on hers. They sat watching the flames as each person fell asleep slowly.

Eventually Hook fell asleep and ended up slumped against the rock, leaving Emma the last one awake. The silence of the night was broken by a rustling in the bushes. Emma squinted towards the source of the noise, but the firelight didn't quite reach that far, so she couldn't see anything.

Emma stood up and cautiously walked to where she thought she heard the noise. "Who's there?" She whispered as she neared the bush.

Emma jumped when a torch lit up behind it, making her even more curious.

Emma reached the spot and saw a young boy with dirty blonde hair and green clothes. He looked startled to see Emma, but she looked even more confused. Emma drew her sword and pointed it at the boys, afraid that he was a lost boy. "Woah Woah," The boy held his hands up in surrender, "No need to be hostile, I'm here to help."

"Who are you? How do I know I can trust you?" Emma asked, her sword still pointed towards the boy's chest.

"You don't know you can trust me, but I'm your best shot at finding Milah."

"And why would a lost boy help us?" Emma asked, skeptical of the Boy's motives. "I'm not a lost boy any more. I used to be, but then I saw what Pan truly was and ran away. They've been looking for me ever since." Lie. Emma could tell that he was lying so she shoved him into the nearest tree and held the blade to his throat. "You're lying. Tell me the truth. Now." Emma could've drilled holes in his head for how hard she was glaring.

"Alright, alright. My name is Peter Pan." Pan smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just slit your throat right now." Emma whisper-screamed. "You need me alive. How else would you find your Captain's precious Milah?" Emma frowned. Why would he help her.

"I have a map. It will lead you to where Milah is being kept, but only if you admit who you really are." Pan pulled out a piece of blank parchment and handed it to Emma as she took the blade away from Pan's neck. Pan backed off.

Emma heard rustling from behind her, and Hook's voice calling her softly. "The map will appear once you stop denying who you truly are." Pan added just as Hook reached Emma's side. He spotted Pan and drew his sword, pushing Emma behind him protectively. "You stay away from her." Hook yelled viciously.

"Can't promise that one, Captain." Pan said, before disappearing in a cloud of grey smoke.

Hook turned to Emma, a worried expression plastered to his face. "Are you alright, Swan? Did he hurt you? I'm gonna kill him!" He asked frantically as he examined Emma closely for any injuries. "I'm fine. He didn't hurt me, but he gave me this." Emma explained as she held up the blank parchment for Hook to see. Hook sheathed his sword and took the parchment from Emma, then she put her sword back in its holster.

Hook examined both sides of it carefully with a confused look on his face. "But it's blank. What's the point of it?" Hook asked.

"Pan said the map will only appear when I admit who I really am." Emma said, taking the parchment back. "Well what's that supposed to mean?" Hook asked, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Um I'm sure we'll work it out. Come on." Emma took Killian's hand and they walked back to sit in front of the fire again.

"Try stating the obvious things first." Hook told Emma as she stared at the piece of parchment. "Okay... I'm Emma Swan." She waited for a few seconds, and then sighed. "Um... I used to be a princess?"

"I'm a pirate." Hook smiled at this, biting his bottom lip. "Don't do that, it's distracting!" Emma said playfully, looking at Killian. "Do what, love." Killian asked in mock innocence. Emma chuckled softly and leant in to kiss him quickly.

"Just don't be afraid to pour your feelings out to me." Killian told Emma. She took a shaky breath. "Ok, well recently I've had this gut feeling that something is going to go wrong on this journey. I can't understand what it is, but it might be because I'm afraid of losing anyone else. I've already lost my parents, I can't lose you too." Emma looked at the ground. Realisation dawned on her, "I think I know what I am. I'm an orphan." Emma's voice cracked at the last sentence, so Hook pulled her into a hug. He made soft shushing noises and caressed her hair. Killian looked at the map expectantly, and saw a green island appearing on it, and an X right at the top of the island. He sighed softly and Emma cried into his shoulder. He hated that she was still hurt from her family.

"Hey, you might be an orphan, but you'll never be alone. Not whilst I'm around anyway. I promise." Killian assured her. After a few minutes of silence, Emma mumbled "I love you."

"I love you too, Swan. More than you'll ever know." And that was the last thing Emma heard before she drifter off to sleep in his arms.

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a/n so I'm officially 14! Yay! I know this chapter was mainly fluff, but savour the cute moments, because things are about to get a whole lot worse >:)