Only Be Dark: OUAT/Killian Jones

Good Form

The next day, they went back to the cave to see if they could find anything that could help them decipher the star map that Neal had made when he was living on Neverland. David lit the torch with his lighter once again, and Y/n made her way over to what appeared to be a bed. Beneath it, she saw multiple markings on the wall. Pulling off the blanket, she saw more of the little white markings, crossing off each time seven ended.

"You need a hand, love?" she heard Hook say from beside her.

"Are you trying to be funny?" she questioned him, going to move the stuffed bed.

Hook gave a slight chuckle, looking at her before helping her with the bed, moving it aside with his good hand as he said, "No, I'm being quite serious."

Moving the bed aside, there were more underneath it, Y/n calling, "Emma, come here."

When Emma followed her sister's call, she said, "Whoa," and looked down at the markings, hopping up onto the rock to get a better look at them.

"What is it?" David asked, looking through a book.

"It appears Neal marked his days trapped on this island," Hook stated, eyes scanning the days marked down.

"What's wrong?" Mary Margaret asked, setting down a book and approaching when she noticed Emma's pause.

"Look here," Emma pointed at the end of the markings. There was only two days marked instead of seven. "Neal stopped counting."

"Because he got off the island," Mary Margaret said, looking down at the marks.

"He was here longer. Years had to have passed," Y/n said, looking at Hook, who nodded.

"Then why would he-"

"Because he lost hope," Emma said, cutting off David as he and Regina approached.

"You got that from scribbles?" Regina questioned as she looked down at the markings herself.

Emma rolled her eyes and jumped down from the rock ledge, looking over at Regina as she gestured between herself and Y/n and said, "I got that because it's what we did every time we went to a new foster home until we split up."

Y/n looked down at the ground with her arms crossed as she said softly, "You count down the days until even counting is pointless."

"You think the same thing is happening to Henry," David said to his daughters.

"Pan said that it would," Emma spoke lowly.

"Hey. We're going to rescue him."

"Yeah, I know that. And you know that. But Henry doesn't know that," Emma stated, sitting up from the ledge. "Pan wants him to lose faith."

"So, what? You want to send him a message?" Regina deduced, her questions increasing. "Because I haven't seen a Neverland Post Office. What are you suggesting?"

"We take a page from Pan. And we start being clever," Emma said, looking among them. "We need a simple sign. A sign that we're coming."

"With Lost Boys running around trying to kill us all?"

"Yeah, maybe it's time we use that to our advantage," Mary Margaret said, befuddling them.

"How would we do that?" Y/n questioned, not seeing an up-side to that.

"Follow me, I'll show you," Mary Margaret said, and made an instant beeline for the exit to the cave.

Regina, David, and Emma followed her out, but just as Y/n went to follow, Hook caught her arm and said, "Adler."