The lost children (finished editing)

"Chapter 14; Secrets"

Trigger warnings: Lost children, mourning, secrets, resentment, humans in cages, etc.

Let me know when I should add to the list.

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The Neverland recuse party was now in the echo caves, staring down a cage they had to get to.

A cage that held Neal in it.

Everyone looked very reluctant to share anything, so Hook decided he had to step up—whether he liked it or not. There were many secrets he could tell that could be considered deep but he didn't think it was the time to profess his love for Emma and he really didn't feel like revealing anything more about his pre pirate family. So, that only left one thing...

Killian stepped forward and ignored the feeling of the other's eyes on him. Every fiber in his being was screaming that this was a horrible idea and that his children didn't deserve to be used in this way. That he shouldn't be telling anyone—let alone their big brother— about them in this way but he knew that he had to. He had to convince the others to trust him in this one instance, no matter how many headaches and heart aches it would bring.

It was about time he finally talked about his children and his loss of them—even if it were to a group of near strangers.

"My secret is I am— was —a father" he couldn't help but wonder why it still hurt correcting himself like this after nearly 200 years of his kids being gone. God, had it really been that long?

200 years...

200 years since he last hugged or tucked in any of his children.

200 years since he could say he still had some humanity in him.

200 years since he had lost everything that could have made him worth saving.

200 years since he lost any motivation to be a somewhat, halfway decent person. God, what happened to him?

Hook winced when he heard David sputter indignantly "You're a what?!"

Thankfully, Snow cut in because if she hadn't, Killian wasn't sure he'd have the strength to continue.

"David, now is not the time" she said, scowling, elbowing him. She sounded like a true mother in that moment—briefly reminding Killian of his own, whose memory was starting to fade from his mind.

Another blast from the past...

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Killian was being yelled at for breaking a vase and he was crying. Not because he was 3 and being yelled at but because his hands were bleeding and his dad wasn't doing anything about it.

He was too little to understand why his daddy always seemed to be angrier at him than at Liam for things.

His father got louder and louder, and the next thing Killian knew, he was being lifted up into the arms of his mother.

She was a beautiful blonde woman with pale skin and blue eyes—his eyes—who was always dressed in blue.

"Oh Brennan, now is not the time!" She scolded, sounding rather cross as Killian clung to her.

"But Alice—" his father protests, only to get cut off.

"No buts. He's bleeding and you just stood there and yelled at him. Now clean this mess up so no one else gets hurt" she walked off with him before Brennan could protest, whispering sweet nothings into his hair that he could no longer remember. She always had his back when his father was being too hard on him and his siblings, and it would be one of the things he would never forget about her.

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"I had 3. Harriet, Harry, and Calista Jane. They were 10, 7, and 5 the last time I saw them. They just disappeared one day. It was awful and I still have no idea what happened to them but I miss them every single day and wish that I had spent more time with them." He forced himself to stop, knowing that if he didn't, he'd start crying.

Killian didn't want to lose his bad reputation—it was the only thing he had left and if he cried then they'd know he was faking the whole heartless thing.

A small portion of bridge constructed itself on the empty path, showing that Killian's knowledge was correct and that sharing his secret did, indeed, help their cause.

Snow stepped up next and turned to David. "My secret is that I still blame myself for what Regina did and because our kids didn't grow up with us. And that I'm just waiting for you to wake up one day and realize that it's my fault, and leave me even though I know you won't. My secret is I want another chance. Another baby that we get to raise all the way to adulthood."

After that, all hell would break loose with Neal and Emma losing it—neither knowing that they had had siblings (or in Neal's case, more siblings) before this moment. It didn't help that David revealed immediately after that he couldn't leave Neverland because of the Dreamshade cure or that Emma revealed that she wished Neal had died (deserved or not).

This was just a sign of what was to come during their time on the island... But Killian was too shocked to realize it.