Tiger Lily (A Peter Pan Fanfic)

Chapter Sixteen

SEVERAL YEARS LATER

I hummed along to the music blaring through my earbuds as I bustled around Granny's Diner, serving customers their food, taking orders, et cetera, et cetera.

"Oh, Lily, take those blasted things out of your ears and focus, will you?" Widow Lucas - or Granny, as she preferred, called, frowning at me.

Giving her a grin, I obliged and plucked the earbuds from my ears, putting them into the pocket of my apron.

She and Ruby were the closest things I had to family...since I didn't exactly know my real family. They'd taken me in as their own, and sure, Ruby was hardly around, but when she was, it was nice.

As for my biological family, the only thing they'd left me was a gold locket which I kept in the nightstand by my bed.

As much as I wanted to get rid of it, I couldn't. It was the only thing I had tied to my real family. My mother had died when I was young, and my dad...well...he left. Yes, I held a lot of bitterness towards him...but I couldn't bring myself to get rid of the locket no matter how hard I tried.

Hearing the familiar ringing of the bell tied to the door, I shook myself out of my thoughts and greeted the new customer, who happened to be Emma Swan.

Emma had been here for a while now, and as it turned out, she was Henry's - the son of the mayor, Regina Mills, son. Naturally, that caused a bit of an...uncomfortable situation.

"Hey, Emma. What can I get for you?" I asked, offering her a smile.

Returning the smile, she replied, "I'll just have a hot chocolate."

"With cinnamon?" I asked knowingly.

"With cinnamon."

As soon as the hot chocolate was ready, I passed it over to Emma, but as I did so, something strange happened.

Her hand briefly touched mine, and a...vision of some sort flashed before my eyes.

All I saw was a pair of vibrant green eyes.

Gasping, I recoiled my hand, my eyes wide. What had just happened? Whose eyes were those? Was I going crazy? Man, I really needed sleep...

Casting an odd look at me, Emma asked, "You okay, kid?"

Nodding slowly, I wiped my hands on my apron. "Uh...yeah. Yeah. I'll be right back."

Slipping into the kitchen, I informed Granny I wasn't feeling well and that I needed to take the rest of the night off. She understood, and I quickly climbed the stairs to my room, running my hands through my dark hair.

For a reason I could not pinpoint, the flash of those green eyes simply...enthralled me. Of course, the situation had somewhat scared me as well.

After climbing out of my work uniform and into some comfortable clothing, I crawled into bed, mulling over the brief vision of the green eyes over and over. I'd never seen those eyes before in my life...had I?

Not long after thinking over the experience multiple times, I fell into a rather rough sleep.

~*~*~*~

"Don't you remember me, love? I remember you." A masculine voice called.

I couldn't see whoever - or whatever - was speaking...everything was so dark.

"Who are you?" I demanded, though I had a feeling I wouldn't get an answer.

Suddenly, I felt the stranger's hot breath on the back of my neck as he let out a low chuckle. "Don't worry, Tiger Lily. You'll remember soon enough."

Again, a pair of green eyes flashed in front of me and I felt a sense of fear wash over me.

~*~*~*~

I awoke with a start, my face covered in cold sweat and my heart beating rapidly.

Glancing at the clock on my nightstand, I groaned inwardly when I saw it read 4:32am. It was unlikely I would fall back asleep.

The real issue, though, was the pair of green eyes I kept seeing. It had all started during my shift at the diner when Emma's hand brushed over mine.

Perhaps it was nothing and I was just overreacting about the whole thing?

However, something told me I wasn't.

~*~*~*~

Weeks had passed since my little nightmare, and since then, nothing happened. Maybe I was wrong and it was nothing to worry about.

Distractedly, I scrubbed the tables inside of the diner, my mind completely somewhere else.

"Hey Lily."

Snapping out of my thoughts, I looked up and saw Henry Mills make his way toward me, his large storybook in hand. He never seemed to leave without its.

Offering him a smile, I replied, "What's up, Henry?"

"Well, I've done some reading." he answered, with a quite serious expression.

Quirking an eyebrow, I decided to humor him. I'd heard how he would tell people they were a character from his book. Honestly, it made me nostalgic for the days when I was that imaginative. "Oh?"

He sat down in a booth, gesturing for me to sit next to him. I obliged, and he flipped the book open to a page where a girl - who surprisingly looked like me - stood, a sword drawn and a wicked grin on her face.

Henry pointed to her. "I think that's you. Her name's Lily - just like yours. But they call her Tiger Lily."

"Interesting, " I said, feeling somewhat curious, "What does she do?"

"She's Captain Hook's daughter, " Henry explained, "they go to Neverland together, but she gets trapped by Peter Pan when she tries to save her friend."

Peter Pan had always been one of my favorite stories growing up. Of course, Henry's book had a twist to every fairytale. I didn't expect the fictional character to be anything like I was used to.

"Cool, " I said, "What happens next?"

Henry turned the page, revealing a boy adorned in leather boots and green clothes he seemed to have made himself.

The clothes weren't what made it interesting, though.

No, it was his familiar green eyes.

"Henry, what happens to Tiger Lily when she meets Peter Pan?" I asked, everything suddenly feeling far away.

"Well...she hates him at first. But then they fall in love."

A/N: Alright, bear with me, friends! I know this chapter is rather short...and it took me like a month to update...and it's a filler...okay, so you have every reason to despise this chapter. However, I felt it was somewhat necessary to give a little detail into Lily's life in Storybrooke. No, I am not going to go through all three seasons. There will probably be one or two more chapters of Lily in Storybrooke before we get back to Neverland!

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