Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon A time as much as I would love to.

Chapter 13

"What's Neverland like? Is Tinkerbell a fairy or a pixie? If you're Peter why'd you grow up? What happened to the Lost Boys?" Henry asked the man next to with rapid speed making him raise one eyebrow and look at Snow.

"Is he always this curious?" Neal inquired to the driving woman.

"Henry loves hearing stories about different lands." Snow answered back smiling softly, the school teacher would be lying if she said she wasn't still suspicious of the man but after he helped her not only strip and lock up Hook but also take care of the wound on the side of Henry's neck she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Neal just nodded and turned his head to look at the boy.

"Neverland's cool think jungle/ forest hybrid, Tink's a pixie though you might not think it last I saw her she was becoming the Queen of the Pixies so she might be your size now," Neal answered thinking about the land and his small companion who helped him smile again when he had first fallen through the portal and arrived in Neverland feeling betrayed by his father. "I grew up because after Hook left Neverland it really didn't need to be protected anymore but the Lost Boys stayed behind with Tiger Lily's tribe to sure that if anyone ever did come to try they would be met with a nasty surprise."

"There's really a tribe of Indian's in Neverland?" Henry asked amazed by the idea his eyes nearly doubling in size.

"Well contrary to the story it's really just a tribe of kids," Neal answered remembering the small tribe and how Tiger Lily's youngest had only looked to be about eight years old. "See only kids can actually live on the island that's why Hook stayed of his ship and only came on shore when he absolutely needed supplies, otherwise he would have started turning him back into a kid himself and lost all his memories."

"Wow." Henry said utterly entranced by the idea of Neverland.

"Wow indeed," Snow echoed trying to imagine a place with no adults, as a child it would have seemed like paradise to her but now as an adult herself she couldn't imagine how the children survived alone. "I heard stories about Neverland, a kingdom completely made up of children but I never thought it was true."

"Trust me it is." Neal said smiling slightly as he remembered the island even now he called home.

"How did you survive without any grownups?" Henry asked as if reading his grandmother's mind.

"We worked together," Neal said shrugging his shoulders. "Tiger Lily's tribe was in charge of finding food and we were in charge of discovering safe places to hide it, plus both tribes fought together against Hook in case he ever found them."

"What about the other pixies and the mermaids, were there really mermaids?" Henry asked again wondering if there were mermaids did Ariel know them or if they were a whole different kingdom.

"The pixies helped find us find shelter," Neal answered thinking back to the large hollow tree that Tinker Bell had found for the Lost Boys. "And we did have mermaids they taught us to fish but you had to be careful with them, they liked to cuddle."

"Why's that so bad?" Henry asked looking confused.

"Normally it's not but the mermaids never wanted to let us go," Neal chuckled thinking back to the women who would pout when any of the children would escape them. "I once spent a whole day being hugged by one until Tink got so annoyed she stole the mermaids comb."

"Wow," Henry said before turning to look at Snow "Hey grandma do you think that Ariel knows them somehow?"

Neal suddenly felt something inside him freeze, if Snow was Emma's mother and Henry was calling her grandma does that mean that he's.

'No,' Neal thought shaking his head. 'No way Emma would not tell me.'

"So now that you know a little about me what about you two?" Neal asked trying to be as subtle as he could to try to get information from the pair and possibly who Henry was.

"What do you want to know?" Snow asked suspiciously glancing at the man briefly out of the corner of her eye.

"Relax Snow I'm not looking to dig out your closets skeletons," Neal said giving the same disarming smile to the brunette that he had given to Emma when she stole his stolen car. "I'm just curious about the town, I mean no offence but you look to be what 26 – 27 way too young to be called grandma."

"I'm not sure I feel comfortable telling you anything," Snow said honestly tightening her grip on the steering wheel slightly. "Forgive me but how do I know you really are Peter Pan, you could just be an ally of Hook and Cora's that we don't know about."

Neal looked at the woman and could see where Emma got her natural suspicion for people from but if he wanted to find out the truth about Henry he would have to do something really drastic to prove he was who he claimed he was so with a heavy sigh Neal looked at the woman driving seriously.

"Rumplestilskin is my father."

In hindsight Neal should have seen the woman's sudden breaking of the truck coming but he was still taken by surprise when he launched forward a little and the two other occupants stared at him in shock.

"R-Rumplestilskin is you're WHAT?" Snow asked yelling the last word as she looked at Neal as if trying to dissect him and pick out the pieces of his father.

"Cool." Was Henry's only response to the news.

"Yeah he's my dad but we have a strained relationship at the best of times so this is my way of telling you that I'm sorta trustworthy." Neal said trying to remain as calm as possible as he spoke.

"Because who would ever admit to being the Dark One's son," Snow said trying to think of all the people who had ever claimed a relationship to the imp in their old world, no one was ever crazy enough to actually dare claim that they shared blood with the man. "In the old world if he ever found out someone was claiming such a thing killing them would be the least of what he'd do."

"Ok so until Mr. Gold says otherwise I'm Henry Mills," Henry said remembering what Regina had taught him about introducing himself properly. "My adoptive mom's the mayor Regina Mills and my birth mom is Emma, the woman who arrested you."

Neal just looked at the boy and numbly extended his own hand knowing now that unless Henry was somehow younger than he looked he was Neal's son. "Hey Henry I'm Neal Cassidy."

"And I'm Snow White," Snow said noticing the shocked look on the man's face but deciding to leave it alone until she had a chance to talk to Emma. "I apologize for being suspicious but …"

"You're just protecting your family, don't worry I get it," Neal finished giving an understanding the woman's hesitancy before turning back to Henry. "So Regina's your mom huh you know Prince Charming mentioned her before he and the other two left me."

"Did they say anything before they left?" Snow asked urgently.

"Yeah, something about Emma being the child of pure love." Neal said thinking back to the strange way David had described his daughter.

Both brunette's put on a similar confused face as they continued the drive to Regina's house. Once they parked the truck in the mansion's drive way they all made their way to the front door, Snow making sure to invite Neal inside so that he could get past the barrier. As soon as the door was closed though a female voice was heard yelling clearly from upstairs.

"MY MOTHER IS HERE!"

*Netherland*

Regina walked around the red platform amused as the flames in front of her parted as she did, it wouldn't surprise the once queen if she turned around and saw them gathered around her back like a fiery cape.

Regina wasn't sure how long she'd been here but during her time here the former queen had learned things about this world that others perhaps did not. The first thing she discovered was that even though the flames would push towards her and try to scare her the fire itself wouldn't actually touch her unless she tried to touch it. The second thing was a small narrow path that she found near one of the corners of the platform, when she followed it Regina found that it led to a second room that was completely made up of ice.

And just like the red room this new white ice room led to another room, once she was able to find the small path which had taken longer since much of the room was covered in a thin layer of snow. After that Regina found that she enjoyed discovering where the new room would lead to it was almost like a game for her to pass the time with.

So far she had found a storm room where loud claps of thunder and streaks of lightning rained down on her, a room full of small twisters and many other different and unique followed but sadly Regina had gotten bored with her never ending quest to find the end and decided to come back the red room.

*BA-DUMP*

Regina gasped and fell to her knees at the sudden feeling of her heart pounding.

*BA-DUMP* *BA-DUMP*

Trying as she could Regina found that she suddenly couldn't breathe as hard as she tried the former queen couldn't take in even a sliver of air and was already starting to feel herself losing consciousness.

It was almost like she was floating.

Suddenly the great weight on her chest lifted and Regina took a giant gasp opening her eyes for the first time since she let herself fall under the sleeping curse.

"Regina," Ms. Swan's voice came as Regina groaned and tried to fight off the bright light. "Hey Regina, are you alright?"

"Ms. Swan?" Regina asked in a slightly hoarse voice once her eyes focused and she saw the blonde woman's face hovering above her own. "What may I ask do you think you're doing in my house?"

Emma just let out a small chuckle and smiled down at her former enemy. "Well at least you didn't lost your sparkling personality well you were asleep."

Regina tried to sit up but she felt like she had no strength in her limbs, feeling arms suddenly around her waist she looked and saw that idiot number two, Prince Charming was helping her sit up on her bed and handing her a glass of water the moment she was sitting up.

"Uh … thank you David." Regina said awkwardly taking the glass from the man carefully trying not to spill its contents all over herself.

"You're welcome Regina." David answered back giving his typical boyish smile before moving back to give the woman some space.

"I'm glad to see your awake again your majesty," Rumplestilskin said from his spot at the end of the bed looking at Regina like she was a small child who had done something wrong. "You did something very foolish."

"Gold," Regina sneered back slightly. "Why are you here? And how long was I asleep?"

"By my estimate a week and a half perhaps two at most," Rumplestilskin answered smoothly looking at his formal pupil seriously. "And we seem to have a serious problem."

"Gold she just woke up." Emma said not wanting to be caught up in another one of Regina's magic outbursts; her back still had bruises from the last time.

"What's wrong?" Regina said sounding scared her mind immediately going to her son. "Is Henry ok?"

"Henry's fine Regina don't worry." David said trying to calm the woman down.

"It's Cora though." Rumplestilskin continued noticing that Regina flinched at her mother's name slightly.

"Gold." Emma warned again.

"She's in Storybrooke." Gold finished bluntly ignoring the sheriff's silent warnings.

The room suddenly became so silent Emma would bet that you could drop a pin and hear the noise it made when it hit the floor. Regina's eye's widened at the words instantly as she looked at both members of the sheriff's department like they would suddenly tell her that they were joking.

"MY MOTHER IS HERE!" Regina yelled the moment David and Emma avoid her pleading glances.

"Regina calm down." David said moving quickly and taking the glass from her before she had a chance to throw it at the pawn brokers head.

"Calm down! Calm down! How can I calm down when my mother is here?" Regina cried hysterically grabbing her pillow and weakly throwing it at the imp's instead of the glass she so desired she could. "Henry, oh god please tell me he's still not in Storybrooke?"

"Regina I swear if you don't calm down I'm going to see if that slapping idea from movies really works on hysterical people," Emma warned not flinching when the heated dark brown eyes suddenly turned away from the man at the end of the bed and settled on her. "Yes Cora is here, Hook stole the bean from the last giant back in the forest and no Henry hasn't left Storybrooke but he and I did move back here so your barrier could keep him safe."

"But what -" Regina started to say.

"Trust me we never leave him alone, Snow watches him at school at all times and either myself or David picks him up," Emma interrupted placing a hand on the hysterical woman's shoulder. "Gold also put up a barrier around the diner and library not to mention Belle's place so if we need to hide him we can."

"But -" Regina started again before getting interrupted by her bedroom door slamming open and two dark haired blurs launching themselves past Emma and at her each of them pulling her into a tight hug.

"MOM/ REGINA."

"Henry?" Regina asked looking down at her son before her eyes widened at the second person who was hugging her. "Snow?"

"What the heck are you two doing here?" Emma asked looking at the pair who should still be at school.

"Uh I can answer that," Neal's voice came from the door immediately grabbing the attention of everyone in the room. "We kinda had a visit from an angry pirate."

*Author's Notes*

Hope everyone likes that Regina is now awake and the way I decided to do Neverland, if my use of the word Indian offends anyone I apologize now, and explore more of the Netherworld cause I seriously doubt that its one big room of fire.

I might have Regina giving permission for Henry to read her journals but that's still in the works.

I'm also a little sorry to say that my stories are going to be on semi-temporary hiatus for a few weeks its exam time at my school and I need to focus so please forgive me for updating irregularly for the rest of April.

Please though drop me a review; I love reading what everyone thinks and for every person who does review you get a free cyber pastry of your choice as a reward.