Heart of the Sea

Chapter 30 - Missing Pieces

The next day Emma took over Lili-sitting, giving Killian a chance to stretch his legs and get out of the house.

Lili-sitting didn't properly start until about halfway through the day, the sittee not getting up until around eleven. Emma looked up from the video files she was scanning as the familiar click of crutches made its way into the kitchen. She quickly minimized the window and started entering files she'd brought from the office into the police database.

"Hey kid."

"Mh."

The cabinet opened, glass tinkled, and a light pop was followed by a small thwack before rum glugged in its bottle.

The crutches approached.

Emma's eyebrow rose as Lili managed to get down and flop onto the other side of the couch, setting her bottle on the coffee table and ducking out of her satchel.

"Think you need to lay off that stuff, kid?" This wasn't the first time she'd had rum for breakfast, but the bags under her eyes told the sheriff she'd been having nightmares again.

"Eventually, maybe." Lili opened her sketchbook.

Emma glanced over, fingers hovering over her keyboard as Lili flipped pages. The young woman stopped at a dark, shaded drawing of a boy who looked strangely familiar. Shaggy straight hair swept away from his brow, burning dark eyes stared out of the page; his lips were pulled down a little.

..He looked a lot like Henry.

As she studied the boy Emma realized who it was she was looking at.

"Neal," she murmured.

Lili looked up at her, only just noticing the savior's expression. She smirked a little. "Yeah, that's him. Don't know why it's still in here. S'pose I was saving it for a special occasion."

After a small pause Emma looked up at her. "You never did tell me why you hated him so much." She didn't mean to pry, but it was the truth.

Lili laughed a little. "I didn't, did I." She raised her bottle, eyebrow rising with it. "Well, you did ahsk." She took a good swallow before she looked back down at the drawing. "Before I was allowed to start on the ship, my mother instructed me on how to behave. The biggest rule was that I was to never tell the captain who I really was, not until she was sure of how he'd react. Well, a while ahfter we'd been in Neverland, Mother's dead, of course, one of the lads spotted a boy in the waters. We pull him in, and guess who it is. Well, ahfter 'e found out the boy's name, the captain figured he might be able t'use 'im t' help get 'is vengeance. I'm gonna be honest, I didn't really have much feelings either way about him being my hahf-brother; while he was blood, he was also the Dark One's son.

"Anyway, things didn't really pick up until the captain started tryin'a gain his trust. It started when 'e hid 'im from Felix an' the Boys, and from there on he treated 'im really nice." She took a sip of rum. "Gave 'im my good clothes, taught 'im how t'sail, even told 'im how 'e was abandoned by 'is own father. Well, that opened the floodgates. The boy talked about the dagger, an' how 'is 'Papa' had abandoned 'im for it." Lili paused for a few seconds. "I think that really got t'him, y'know. Ahfter that the captain treated the boy even better. His softness was genuine, and.." She laughed. "It really pissed me off. Here was this boy, who badmouthed us just about every chance 'e got becos a pirate had torn apart his family, the son of his greatest enemy, no less, an' the captain was 'aving pity on 'im, likin' 'im even. ..But then I suppose he was also the son of 'is love, wasn't 'e." She shook her head, twiddling with the rum bottle.

"At any rate, they got along quite well until the lad found the portrait of Mum the captain usually kept on 'im." She shook her head, something dry pulling across her lips, eyes dark. "He swung at the captain with the very sword 'e gave 'im, accusing him of killing our mother. Once 'e'd disarmed 'im, the captain told Bae the truth, how the Crocodile had lied, that him an' Milah'd run away t'gether, but 'e wouldn't accept it, takin' it as 'is own mother abandoning 'im. Cap'm tried t'tell 'im otherwise, said how they'd talked about taking him on once 'e was old enough." Her eyes darkened. "'E said that maybe this was the chahnce they could be the family Milah'd wanted," she swallowed, "but Bae wouldn't have it. He shoved the offer in 'is face, said 'e'd rahther be on 'is own in Neverland than be aboard the Jolly Roger." Lili took another swig of rum, fingers crumpling the edge of the paper. She took a deep breath after a moment, forcing herself to let go of the page.