Never

Chapter Eighteen

The journey from Lily and the traitor Baelfire's hideout on the cliff to Captain Hook's ship was short, but every second that Lily struggled against the burly pirate who held her arms felt like hours of agony. He was heavyset and smelled strongly of stale urine and body odor. The scent combined with Tiger Lily's rather regrettable situation turned her stomach so much that she twisted in her place to retch violently out over the side of the rowboat, convulsing.

When her body had calmed down and stopped shaking, Lily tried her best to wriggle in her captor's arms as much as she could to bring her small hand down between their bodies into a pouch around her waistband in which she stored a tiny vial of Dreamshade, a gift of Pan's to help her in case she ever met "an enemy" of his. The pirate grunted, growling and twisting the small girl's arm to keep them away from her goal to the point where she cried out in pain, earning a snicker from the sandy haired pilot of the small, rickety boat.

Killian glided along in a boat next to Lily's, a smug look playing about his chapped lips. "Fighting so hard, young Kantogoi," He sneered at her, gloating. "Maybe you should be keeping up your strength... for later,"

His words turned Lily's hot blood to ice, but she continued to struggle, her eyes locking with his, a silent challenge.

"Ah," sighed the pirate captain, "Maybe she'll just lie limp, it'll surely be easier for you, boys, to have your fun..."

He gestured with a ringed hand to the rest of his pirates, a few of which licked their lips with anticipation or wiggled their shaggy eyebrows suggestively. Lily gulped, finally going limp in her captor's grasp, leaning away from his body and his noticeable excitement at her closeness to him, which brushed against her back, making her feel like she was about to heave up whatever remained in her stomach.

And then the tears came.

At first they fell silently, simply cascading down her cheeks, but before long she gave herself into the pain and fear that was overpowering her, sobs racking through her chest, her mouth wide open, howling into the open space as the rowboat came ever closer to the ship.

"So perhaps you aren't as strong as you pretend," said Captain Hook, leaning across the space between their nearing boats, gloating once again, seeming as though he was trying and failing miserably to resist laughter.

Lily just screamed in response, her voice warbling with pain as the pirates jostled her and knocked her around. Her wails turned into vague words that echoed across the water. "Peter," she gasped, "Peter!"

"You think he can help you now?" said Killian, clearly enjoying himself. "He's far, far away, on a fake mission, a mission I sent him away on! He's gone, he can't save you!"

"Fuck you!" Lily yelled, jerking towards him, trying to claw out at him, her nails craving the chance to rake across his face. "Fuck you!" She said again and again until she felt ready to collapse out of shattering exhaustion. She screamed on and on, first for Peter, and then for her father, and finally, for what she believed to be her last hope: the little rat, the little traitor Baelfire.

"Bae!" she yelped as the boats collided with the docking boards of the ship, the ladders descended and dozens of hungry, rabid faces peering over the edge to see their prize. "Baelfire, you can still save me!"

Hook guffawed, climbing up the ladder just before her escort, hanging from his left hand, swinging like a monkey as he looked down at her with absolute malice in her eyes. "He's loyal to me and only me," he said proudly. "I'm his father, and there's no bonds stronger than that."

"Baelfire said his father abandoned him," said Lily, finally giving in to her exhaustion and going limp. "He hates him," she continued, still looking around frantically, calling for Baelfire with every spare breath.