The sea was a constant companion to the inhabitants of Storybrooke. It lulled them to sleep or kept them awake as icy Atlantic waves crashed against the coast. Some said it made them feel invigorated and free, that their small town was blessed with such a vast display of unbound nature. Its resonance was always in their ears, a roar or a gentle lapping and the wind was bracing. It filled them with longing for a freedom that most did not know they lacked.

But for one it was a curse, a huge and cruel sea filled with creatures in the darkness that could grab her at any moment. Dr Hopper called it thalassophobia, a fear of the sea and Tallulah had been cursed with it for as long as she could remember. For what felt like years she quietly suffered with it alone, making sure to avoid the sea at all costs, arranged time off if the school planned any seaside trips or movies that featured the ocean. Titanic? She politely deflected any and all invitations to watch. Jaws? Would rather set herself on fire. Even the dreaded theme tune set her pulse racing.

Storybrooke was an unfortunate and inconvenient place to live and Tallulah knew that she should leave but something always made her stop. Dr Hopper said it was a great opportunity to face her fear and conquer it, if she took the treatment in small steps. She had been in therapy for a few months, starting around the time that Emma Swan had been elected sheriff and she had to admit with a quiet sense of victory that she was improving.

On the day the curse was broken Tallulah sat on a bench overlooking the sea. She had been coming to this spot almost every day for the last few weeks, an achievement that Archie was over the moon about. Tallulah, never one for demonstratives, smiled in accomplishment. She was a serious, focused and reserved young woman who did not have time or the inclination for frivolity or needless distractions but every day as she sat and made herself look out to sea something inside her seemed to awaken, a wild and strange giddiness that was alien. She often felt overwhelmed by a loss that she had no account for, a sense that she was missing someone or something and it was not something she could get back. These emotions were short lived and intense and always left her with the taste of salt tears in her mouth.

She was still afraid, she could only watch the light rippling on the water for a certain length of time before she had to leave but the intrusive thoughts that something was beneath her, waiting to pull her down, were growing less and less. For as long as she could remember she dreamed of being in the middle of a vast calm sea, lost and afraid until something grabbed her legs and pulled her under. Now the dreams had changed and she did not know what to make of them. That morning she woke gasping for air, bewildered and deeply unsettled. She again except she was the one waiting underneath the waves, she was the one that grabbed hold and playfully pulled down.

"Am I the thing I fear the most?" she whispered to herself as she got to her feet and went to the cliff edge. Wrapping her hands around the rusted rail she looked down, holding her breath as she watched the waves lap against the side of the cliff. As she contemplated her dream a pulse of light exploded from the centre of town and a rainbow hued wave rippled out from the epicentre. As the Dark Curse broke and the inhabitants regained their old memories Tiger Lily swayed by the cliff edge, her mind blasting with the truth as she watched in awe as the ripple of light flashed out over the sea until it faded.

Gripping the glasses that she kept around her neck on a chain she straightened, breathing hard and looked around her. In the town below she could see people walking around in a daze, echoing her own confusion, while others ran and shouted out names. She turned back to the sea, a yearning like she had never felt roaring through her salt water veins and she smiled as the truth was set free.

I'm a mermaid.

But on the end of that realisation came another, an old feeling that should never affect a creature like her swelled up and she struggled with it until finally she stepped back, shaking her head as tears prickled her eyes.

"I'm still afraid."

She had no name before, she was just a commodity bartered and bought too often by greedy men who only cared about what she could do to bother giving her a name. The curse had given her a name: Lucy, after Saint Lucia, the patron saint of the blind who had her eyes gouged out. Clearly the Dark One had a sense of humour. It has been many months since the curse had broken but she still retained the name, as most people still held onto elements of their cursed personalities.

Lucy was preferable but she loved the name that her aunties called her for all its simplicity: niece. In the Enchanted Forest she had no family, her mother having died giving birth to her but here for the first time she was not alone. If only she could see them but her blindness was a relief after the torment she had endured. You do not need eyes to see, you need vision and she had been cursed with it since birth.

In a shop that was aptly named A Stitch in Time two sisters sat knitting, quite content as Storybrooke began to shake. In fact they could both safely say they had never been so happy because after years of waiting and careful manoeuvring all of their endeavours had come to pass: they were now three. Edith's and Agnes' sister had died long ago but they had never given up the search for their poor mutilated niece. Now they were united.

They looked up as their niece walked past, her long wavy red hair rippling down her back as her fingers lightly traced the counter top before moving to the window to stand. She was blind but as she pressed her hand flat against the glass she could sense something of the future. The Dark One had taken her ability, leaving her for dead but she had survived. Her seer ability was not completely gone, she could catch snippets of it, like jumbled musical notes on the air.

"The heart of the truest believer is gone," she whispered and the ground beneath started to shake more violently. The elder seers nodded, not looking up from their knitting. The spinning wheels were antiquated and truth be told they were getting rather bored of them but it had been a pain to leave them behind in London when they moved to Maine to wait for Storybrooke to appear around them.

"Yes. Soon the pirate and his ship will follow, taking the boy's family to the island."

"Shouldn't we warn them?" Lucy turned, head titled to the side. In the Enchanted Forest her face had been marred by gruesome scar tissue where her eyes had been removed. People had clucked their tongues in sympathy, not knowing that the wound had been self-inflicted. But magic had a will of its own and her eyes had grown back but on the centre of each palm. The first time she had met Peter Pan as a teenager he had joked about it and that had established the beginning of a long and taut partnership. Like everyone else who had dealings with her he sought her out time and again to plan out his future like a path on a map. There had been many paths and the eternal boy had never been satisfied. Her blue, sightless eyes stared out of a beautiful face as she rubbed her palms together nervously as the aunties spoke.

"What would be the point in warning them? You know giving advice never goes well. There's a girl, an angry scared girl who might ruin everything. A princess no less," Agnes crowed, impressed.

"Bring her back here pet, she'll be needed later," Edith encouraged warmly and Lucy nodded. She left the store as the earthquake stopped and walked purposefully down the main road to the harbour.

Tiger Lily stood on the pier and watched as the Jolly Roger sailed out towards the Atlantic. Her toes gripped the planks below as a portal was created in the water and the ship teetered on the edge.

"Jump, just jump!" she commanded, her body straining forward but she could not make herself jump into the water. For weeks she had been fighting with a fear that was the very enemy of who she was. She was a creature of the sea frightened to death of it and it was ruining her life. She had left Neverland in pursuit of Hook, she had spent years chasing him, eager for revenge but he had always managed to escape her. He had killed Rufio, thrust a sword through his heart and ran from Neverland like a coward. She did not care why it had happened, only that Rufio's death had to be avenged and her bleeding heart eased. She thought that could only be accomplished when she dragged the pirate to the seabed until he died but now, after twenty eight years as another person that desire for revenge was now like a bad dream.

"I'm sorry, I failed you," she whispered in dejection. She had loved him but he had never returned it. Had she really wasted all those years for that? Could she do it again? It was only now that she could linger on the unbalance of what they had shared, her once consumed heart now governed by a head that still thought of herself as the timid and inhibited Tallulah.

It's not just that I'm afraid of the water, it's that I don't want to spend my years chasing after someone to drown them. That's not me anymore…and he would not want me to waste my life, he would want me to live it.

"Come away from the water," someone said and gently took her hand. She tuned to see a red haired woman and felt ping of recognition. Her name was Lucy and she taught piano at the school where she also worked. She was visually impaired but she always moved down the halls with a swaying grace, as if she knew her path or had no fear of what may lie ahead.

"I could go home," Tiger Lily considered. Her family were scattered, their royal seat of Neverland abandoned. She could go back and reclaim it. The thought filled her with an apathy. Lucy smiled and drew her away from the pier edge.

"You could and perhaps you will but it won't be today."

"Why should I stay?"

The woman lifted her other hand, palm up and it rose in the air as if a great weight was trying to push it back down. "Someone has been wanting to see you again, has been waiting as long as we've been stuck in this town. He will come soon and he will help you as you will help him. He is your love."

Tiger Lily froze as Lucy dropped her hand with a gasp. "My love?" she gripped the glasses she had been wearing for almost three decades and felt a tingle of anticipation ignite inside her. "Is it a man named John? Will he help me swim again?"

"I don't know. I only see faintly now, I'm sorry," she apologised and began walking, bringing the mermaid with her. They walked back to the tailors shop as the ship vanished into the portal and was gone.

Wendy Darling stood on a rock out to sea as dark storm clouds began to gather above. Her night dress fluttered in the breeze like a white flag, the wind strong enough to push her over but she stood her ground. It felt strange to be dressed in a simulation of the clothes she wore when she first came to Neverland, like a woman trying on an old wedding dress that never belonged to her. The way she appeared was something from a dream now, a ghost girl who once lived in a city with cobbled streets and fog.

"The first time I came here I was hit and fell into the sea. They thought I was you," she said with a sad smile and turned to look at the Never bird. The wind echoed through the bars of the Never bird's cage, making a strange echoing music that was both sweet and eerie. The bird was in her favoured perch above the scales but the years had taken their toll on the creature. Taking after a gigantic white peacock, her once pearly white feathers were ruffled and stained green through years of exposure to the elements. As she watched a tail feather fluttered to the floor where it burned up into ash. Wendy had assumed long ago the creature was a fire bird and she was right. The pile of ash grew larger over the years as the magic dwindled from Neverland, as people stopped believing. Peter was dying, the immortal bird was fading away and the fountain of youth was running dry. It was the beginning of the end.

Wendy tried to make the bird as comfortable as possible. As her only visitor she cleared away the vines and seaweed that choked the cage of sunlight, she swept the floor but left the ash and brought fish to the bird as a treat. The Never bird could not talk but Wendy thought she appreciated her efforts and attention. Yet she always left Skull Rock with a laden feeling, one that grew heavier as the years lengthened. As the Jolly Roger appeared on the horizon Wendy ringed her hands around the bars and stared up at the captive bird.

"I don't know what will happen. I don't know if Peter will succeed or not but I promise that whatever the outcome I will set you free."

The bird stared at her with dimming blue eyes and gave one faint note of thanks before the noise was drowned out by laughter.

"That sounds entertaining. Who do you think she'll eat first? Me or Hook?"

She turned to Peter calmly but her pulse was racing. She had taken his heart to protect him but as a result she was now inflicting a heartless Peter on everyone, including herself. His heart was black and rotting but he was still capable of compassion and empathy. Now he had no such qualms. Before giving up his heart, as they had made love for possibly the final time, he had been nervous and regretful but now he was grinning at her, utterly unconcerned. Wendy had not seen him so buoyed in years.

"Hopefully she'll kill neither, if you succeed," she replied tactfully and his lips smirked. It was a look she had seen a thousand times but now it sent a shiver through her. He cast a sneering look at the phoenix, who killed anyone with an impure heart.

"That old goose will be the least of my problems if I fail," he said darkly and motioned for her to come forward. He was dressed as a Lost Boy and around his neck was a phial of inert pixie dust. It should be Tink's but he said he needed it in his ruse to get Henry to display his ability.

"I should go," Wendy brushed passed but he caught her arm and pulled her close, bending slightly to whisper into her ear.

"You know I hated being heartless before but I never really grew to appreciate it, never gave myself time to. Taking my heart was a genius idea Wendy. All those doubts, all that shame and guilt gone. Now I won't hesitate. You should try it bird…because if you have any sentimental notions about the boy or his family I suggest you purge yourself of them. I care about you but I won't hesitate to act if you betray me. If I fail then the only thing keeping your brothers alive fails too. Clear?" he asked and then his deathly serious expression broke into a dazzling grin. Wendy kept her face impassive and simply nodded before leaving him with a soft kiss to the cheek.

He was heartless. He did not care, he could not and as horrible as that will likely prove to be it had to be done. If he exchanged his heart with the boy he would be cursed worse than he was now and Wendy would not let that happen. She steeled herself for whatever cruelty he may have in store, for any loveless words or actions that he may and likely will inflict on her. A century ago she would have crumpled in pain at the prospect but she was not that girl anymore, though she could pretend just as effortlessly as Peter could. She would play the role of innocent but if her brothers were in any danger she would break her promise to Peter and break it hard. He knew that. She would keep his heart safe and if she succeeded maybe it will be salvaged. If she was smart, if she was lucky, so will Henry Mills.

She might be a bird in a cage but she was queen of that cage.

~fin~

a.n:

So that brings us to the end of this story. A big thank you to everyone who has been reading and kind enough to leave feedback, especially those who have stuck with me since A Very Sweet Subject. The support has meant so much to me and was greatly appreciated.

However it's not the end just yet! The final part of this trilogy will obviously be about Henry on the island and what Wendy does during that time dealing with a heartless Peter and how that affects their relationship. I will be switching from Wendy's POV on the island to Storybrooke as her brothers reach the town.

So please look out for Greatest Pretend in the future. Thank you!