THE JOLLY ROGER was really something — a true beauty that required eons of admiration, that never ceased to amaze Wilma with its beautiful details and tendency to survive even the harshest of storms. However, despite enjoying her time on the vessel, Wilma already missed her baby, and a part of her couldn't believe she had actually left the Corvette behind, but then again, taking her along was most likely impossible. There was much that The Jolly Roger could handle, but Wilma doubted a fair ton of steel and pure badassery was one of those things.

But, admittedly, she did enjoy traveling on the ship, which was why she spent a fair amount of her time walking around and adoring the surroundings, from the nooks and corners yet to be explored, to the hidden, forgotten treasures lying around in the cabins. But above all, Wilma loved leaning against the gunwale and looking at the rocky waves, the world of colors they moved with, the mysterious yet stunning land they had ended up in — and in the distance, was the island they called their destination, which kind of terrified, but also intrigued Wilhelmina. All her life, she had lived in the knowledge that the stories she had fallen in love with at a fairly young age, weren't true — but that never stopped her from having a little bit of hope, a little bit of that childish belief. And there she was now, in Neverland, a part of the experience she had only read about until now.

"You're handling all this surprisingly well, Wilma. Considering, you know... everything", Regina's voice then startled the woman out of her thoughts, causing the brunette to turn around to face her as she chuckled softly. Wilma's eyes followed Regina as she slowly stepped next to her, leaning against the edge of the ship with her and looking at the dark waves too, and as she relaxed, Wilma did too, and repeated the quiet chuckle. It was true, and it was kind of surprising, even to Wilma herself, and as she realized that, the best response she could offer initially was a simple shrug.

"Yeah", Wilma breathed out, returning to her former position and staring at the sea again. "I guess I haven't really had the time to freak out. There's always something happening. But it's kind of nice, if that makes any sense. I've spent my whole life reading and fangirling over all these heroes and villains, and now I'm friends with them and it's just... insane. In a good way, of course", she broke into a soft smile whilst turning to glance at Regina, who returned the curious look, and the warm smile. Wilma knew that the two weren't the best of friends yet, not very close yet, but as she looked into the Queen's eyes and thought about the potential between them, she dearly hoped for a friendship to bloom.

"Well, I just want to thank you, for being so understanding, despite my reputation. Not only did you save my life, but now you're here, risking your life just to help with saving Henry", Regina then continued, and shot Wilma a truly grateful look, but her tone sounded just a tad confused, as if she struggled to understand why Wilma would do such a thing — be so kind and open to everyone, even the villains, even her, after the numerous atrocities and horrors she had committed and brought upon Storybrooke and its heroes. But Wilma didn't see it that way, as to her, Regina was just a woman in the search of her own happy ending, which clearly included Henry, and that was only one of the reasons why Wilma shivered at the thought of losing the boy for good. Therefore, it only made sense she joined the party — perhaps her optimism and ability to see good even in the worst people was exactly the touch their otherwise colorful group needed.

Wilma had no time to answer, when the waves suddenly got stronger and the whole ship quaked with the raging waters, which surprised them all. Unable to react before it was too late, Wilhelmina stumbled forward and right into Regina's arms, but the woman welcomed her and held onto her, with both of them desperately trying to maintain their balance, as Snow and David were attempting to keep the ship straight and steady in the rising storm.

"What the bloody hell is that?", Wilma yelled out to Killian, who emerged from the cabin, before turning her worried look to the stormy waters and trying to figure out what was surrounding the ship — a shark, perhaps? Some kind of magical sea monster? However, as Wilma leaned into Regina and tried to see through the powerful waves, she didn't find sharp teeth or any ugly monsters, if anything, it was quite the opposite. The high-pitched, violent squeals came from creatures with shiny tails and beautiful features, but concluding from Killian's shaky voice — which was new and unexpected from the fearless pirate — they were anything but dreamy and lovely.

"Mermaids", he confirmed Wilma's suspicion, and although the murderous ladies of the sea began to sabotage their trip by using their supernatural abilities and swatting their strong tails against the ship, Wilhelmina couldn't help but laugh out loud in enthusiasm, rather than amusement. She could vividly remember the first time she heard about Ariel, or when she asked her mother if mermaids were real, only to be told that if she chose to believe so, anything could be real. And ever since, Wilma had carried not immense belief, but optimism and an open mind to the idea of coming face to face with a mermaid one day.

She just never expected them to be so, well, murderous.

———

WITH SOME MAGIC, in the form of fireballs, Regina succeeded on scaring away all the mermaids, who were wreaking havoc on The Jolly Roger — well, all except one, which was caught on a net by Snow and Emma. And with a little effort, the mermaid was brought onto the ship, which horrified Killian greatly, but whereas he insisted on getting that thing off his ship, others had different views and opinions. Regina was determined to torture her if necessary, to find out why the mermaids attacked them, but Snow and Charming were strictly against the idea of sparking a personal vendetta between them and the mermaids — which turned out to be far worse sea monsters than whatever Wilma had expected initially.

Still, the woman was amazed by the sight. The mermaid was pale but beautiful, her features just striking and addicting, with her long hair, her full lips and long eyelashes — not to mention the shiny, colorful tail she kept on hitting against the dry deck she was clearly uncomfortable, along with being tangled in the net in ways that had to be painful. It felt like a dream, so impossible, yet it seemed quite true when Wilma leaned closer to observe the sea creature with curious, wide eyes.

However, the mermaid refused to sit there like a prize to behold, like some fish on display, and as soon as she noticed Wilma looking at her like that, her frustration and fury encouraged her to grab the brunette from her throat. Choking, Wilma's eyes widened and she wheezed, desperate for some air in her lungs, but the mermaid showed no mercy as she clutched Wilma's throat tightly, with childish glee and pride twisting her features into a wicked expression. It was clear she just enjoyed the pain she was causing her, more than willing to even kill Wilma, but before it got to that horrifying point, Regina had stepped up and did what Wilhelmina had done once for her — saved her life.

"That's enough, sea bitch", Regina spat, using her magic to smack the mermaid down, and gasping and coughing, Wilma stumbled backwards and nearly collapsed, but before she could, her body came in contact with another one and an arm wrapped around her waist. Panting and clutching her throat in aching, Wilma let her shocked gaze wander around until it met Killian's worried one, and she relaxed at the realization that she was in his safe, strong arms, where she couldn't get hurt.

As the others continued to threaten the mermaid and demand answers, Wilma joined Killian at the helm, where he continued to eye the woman in concern, clearly worried for her safety, and it was no wonder. She did almost get choked to death by a vengeful mermaid. Talk about childhood being ruined. Nevertheless, Wilma insisted that she was fine, although it was mostly just to bring the pirate a peaceful state of mind. Truthfully, she didn't know what the truth was — it was just something she was used to doing, saying she was okay. Perhaps she was, though, or at least would be, but how could she define what being okay felt like after a near-death experience in the chokehold of a bloodthirsty mermaid?

"God, I hope Ariel isn't as homicidal", Wilma just muttered, her voice weak, and as she proceeded to rub her throat to relieve some of the pain that still lingered there, the mermaid grabbed what looked a lot like an innocent seashell, but turned out to be something way different. As the mermaid blew into it, it made a horn-like sound that echoed and boomed loud enough for Wilma to cover her ears, and give Killian a worried look, but it seemed the woman had managed to make him a bit of an optimist too, as he only returned a reassuring nod to silently promise that they would be fine in the end.

After the mermaid threatened the heroes by saying that she was warning them, and that she didn't need to kill them, as they would do that by themselves, Regina had grown frustrated enough to take on drastic measures, and ended up turning the whole bloody mermaid into stone. And whilst Wilma wanted to be glad, it only seemed to drive the situation into worse waters — literally, as The Jolly Roger was headed right into a massive wave, and the storm that Killian blamed the mermaid for, began to rise and develop into an actual catastrophe right at their hands, just waiting to be dealt with.

Wilma wasn't quite sure what it was about the storm, or the mermaid's unnatural powers, but she could feel the negativity and the tension lingering in the air, and it didn't take long for the first punch to land on Regina's face, thrown there by Mary Margaret, who wasn't afraid to go all Animal Style on the Queen. As the punches continued to fly and the blaming words split the humid air in half, lightning crackled and hit the sails of the vessel, with the radical waves tossing them around and about and the strong wind making it challenging for Wilma to even stand. The storm was getting out of control, and so were her friends.

Once Wilma saw that Charming was about to punch Hook, the woman ran to intervene, but instead of succeeding, the brunette only ended up in the line of fire and David's fist came in contact with her jaw, causing her head to tilt to the side and her thoughts come together like a trainwreck, in such a manner that she could barely think, or see, as she was knocked down onto the floorboards of the ship. It was clear that David had done his fair share of fighting, as one single punch was nearly enough to knock Wilma down, but instead of giving into the darkness that was spotting her eyesight, the woman managed to steady herself and regain full consciousness, only to find Killian jumping to David's throat with evident anger.

"Some prince you are!", Killian mocked, already lifting his hook to smack David with it, but the latter managed to dodge the incoming blow. "How dare you hit her?", the pirate then huffed, just oozing with anger and disbelief after witnessing Charming punch Wilma — which had obviously been an accident, but whatever was causing the enmity between them was blinding Killian enough to make him believe that David needed to be fought, and in order to protect himself, Charming fought back, leaving the two in each other's throats. Meanwhile, Snow and Regina were unloading years of hatred and disagreements into another fight, but instead of feeling similar need to punch someone or claw their eyes off, all Wilma could feel was concern.

She knew that the fight could lead into someone's death, and for that reason, she tried to break apart the one between Hook and Charming, but she was no resistance to the two strong men. However, Wilma wasn't the only one more or less sane in the situation, as Emma seemed to be too, and Wilhelmina believed this was because of her being the Savior — however, she wasn't quite sure why she wasn't attacking her friends. Nevertheless, she yelled Emma's name in the belief that together, they could come up with some kind of plan, but before Wilma could get to the blonde, she had already decided to do something on her own. Something reckless, and downright mad.

"Emma, don't!", Wilma tried, but her words were suffocated as Killian and David's wrestling pushed her down, where she yelped at the sudden contact with the hard floor.

And with that, Emma then jumped into the water, consumed by despair, and truthfully — Wilma feared it wasn't going to end well.