Killian turned the small glass bottle over in his palm with interest, watching the luminescent blue liquid swirl within. He looked up to meet Cora's eyes, trying to ignore her twisted smile.
"So I drink this," he held up the bottle and shook it slightly. "And simply walk into that cursed cloud." He jerked his head behind him, towards the slowly growing violet haze of Regina's curse.
Cora nodded slowly. "Your ability to understand simple instructions is amazing, Captain."
He ignored her mocking tone and moved his hook dangerously close to her throat. "And why should I trust you?"
She sniffed and disdainfully flicked his hook aside. "You have little choice, Hook. As long as you want your revenge, you will do as I say."
Killian growled low in his throat and glanced at the storm-like curse again. "I will retain my memories you say?"
"You will remember everything. Unlike the other pitiful victims my daughter has chosen." Cora stepped up beside him to watch as the edges of the forest began to disappear under the clouds. "The magic I have created will ensure you do not age until after the Savior has broken the curse. You will have to protect her until she is ready to do that. Whatever boundaries Regina has put in place will not apply to you. I expect you to find the child, wherever she may be."
"Aye." Killian looked down at the little bottle again. "And once the curse is broken, my revenge will be guaranteed?"
"Oh, Captain, how you doubt me," Cora laughed. She spread her arms. "In a land without magic, the Dark One will be naught but a withered old man. Your revenge is all but certain."
Killian glared at her for a few more seconds before lifting the vial to his lips and pulling the cork out with his teeth. Cora's smile widened as he spat the cork out and drank the contents in two swift swallows. He threw the bottle at her feet and smiled grimly.
"Well then, here's to revenge, love."
Emma was four when he saw the bruises on her arm, visible from the window of his neighboring apartment. He tried to tell himself not to get involved, but he could see the loneliness in her eyes and it suddenly seemed to much to ask to make her wait twenty-eight years to find happiness. He scooped her up from the alleyway behind the apartment complex, one rainy night. She didn't cry out or try to fight. She seemed resigned to whatever fate might be in store, as long as she could get away.
He didn't keep her long, so as not to cement memories of him in her childish brain. Just long enough for her bruises to heal and for the flesh around her ribs to fill out a bit. He bought her some new clothes and found a more reputable group home on the other side of the city to place her in.
The day he dropped her off she held onto his hook the entire drive, running her tiny fingers up and down the shiny curve.
"It's sharp, love. Don't hurt yourself," he warned without taking his eyes of the road.
She looked up at him with wide green eyes and nodded. He tried to remind himself that she was just a means to an end.
Watching her walk up the steps to the new group home was the hardest thing he'd done in a long time.
Emma was sixteen the first time a boy tried to take advantage of her. Killian watched from across the street as the last period bell rang and his young savior walked out of the high school to be greeted by a kiss. As Emma slung her backpack into the back seat of the young man's car, Killian saw the way the miscreant's hands were already wandering to places they shouldn't.
The boy took Emma on a long, winding drive through the back roads of Maine as shadows lengthened under the setting sun. They were in the thick of the woods and the first stars were beginning to peek out overhead when the boy rounded a bend and then came to a stop, the red glow of brake lights alerting Killian to pull his own car to the shoulder.
The woods were nearly silent as the pirate stepped out of his car and cut through the dense undergrowth to approach the couple unseen. As he neared their car, the engine went silent and the lights cut out. He swore under his breath. Even from this distance he could see the figures inside were far too close to each other.
Cat-like he approached the vehicle and knelt by the side. Trying not to listen to the muffled sounds within, he stretched out his hook and none-to-gently scraped the well-sharpened tip across the length of the driver's side. The metallic screeching sent shudders down his back but he swiftly moved to the other side of the car.
As he readied his hook again, he heard Emma's voice from inside, "No, I'm telling you, I heard something!" Their movements stilled and he took the opportunity to repeat his eerie scratching along the passenger side. Then he hopped up on top of the car, making sure to make as much noise as possible.
There were sounds of frantic scrambling from within the car and then the driver's side door swung open and the boy stepped out, hugging himself against the night chill. "Is-is anyone th-there?" he called weakly into the night.
Killian let out a dark chuckle he hadn't used since his days as Captain Hook. "Behind you, boy."
The boy stiffened and turned slowly. Upon coming to face to face with Killian's leering face and the metal hook shining in the starlight, his face went white. Before he could let out more than a whimper, Killian grabbed the boy's head and slammed it down hard on the door frame, knocking him out cold.
He hopped down from the roof just as Emma came barreling out the car, tire iron in hand.
Oddly, although her cheeks paled, she didn't scream. Killian took a step back and spread his arms.
"Don't hurt me, love. I'm only here to save you from this boy's unsavory advances."
Emma swallowed and took a step towards him, brandishing her tire iron. "You..." She hesitated. "Do I know you?"
He realized that her eyes had fallen on his hook and he slowly moved it behind his back. "I don't think so."
She took another step and the fear in her eyes was almost completely replaced by bewilderment now. "No, I do. I remember... that hook... But I was so young..." She met his eyes. "Are you my... guardian angel or something?"
Killian felt a gentle pulse of warmth in his chest. "Aye, you caught me. Something like that."
She let her tire iron droop, seeming to realize that he really wasn't going to hurt her. She tilted her head towards the unconscious boy. "So what am I supposed to do about Dustin?"
Killian gave a terse shake of his head. "I'll lift him into the car and you can drive the both of you home. You can do better than the drug addict who's cheating on his girlfriend."
He watched Emma's brow furrow at the mention of the girlfriend and then she sighed. "I kept telling myself they must have broken up. And I thought it would just be a little bit of fun."
Killian gave her a small smile. "It's alright, love. I'm watching out for you. You're not alone."
Emma was eighteen when her and Neal made their stolen bug into a makeshift home. Neal swore that the forest park near the outskirts of the city was hardly patrolled and parking the bug a ways into the woods was a surefire way to avoid suspicion.
Emma was hardly surprised when a metallic screech, worse than nails on a chalkboard, interrupted the christening of their new home. Neal's eyes darkened as the screech rang out from the other side of the car seconds later.
"What is that?" he whispered.
Emma rolled her eyes. "Just a prank. Leave it to me." She grabbed her jacket and threw it back on, impatiently kicking the door open.
Neal grabbed her wrist. "Em, are you sure it's okay? I've heard stories..."
Emma huffed. "Trust me, it's fine. I'll be right back."
Killian was sitting cross-legged on top of the bug, examining the tip of his hook.
Emma crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him. "Really?"
"He's not your type," Killian said. He tapped the hook lightly on the roof. "You can do better."
Emma scoffed. "He's so my type. We stole a car together."
"I know," Killian grimaced. "I saw."
"Speaking of, some guardian angel you've been." She felt her anger rising and forced it back down to a simmer. "You were so willing to step in to... guard my heart or something... all through high school. But as for actually helping me find a job? A place to live?..." She took a deep breath. "Just get out of my life and let me make my own decisions."
She wasn't expecting the look of sheer pain on Killian's face. "Emma..."
"I'm serious." She pointed down the road into the darkness. "Leave."
He swung his legs out from under him and slid down from the roof, coming face to face with her. She kept her head held high as he leaned in close, a storm raging in his eyes.
"As you wish," he whispered. He turned and disappeared into the shadows.
Emma was twenty-five when she was evicted from the crummy apartment she'd been calling home. She adjusted her lumpy pillow between her head and the headrest and tried not to picture memory foam mattresses and clean sheets. The wind whistled outside and she groaned and pulled her red leather jacket tighter around her, not wanting to dig through her box of clothes for anything warmer.
A thin screeching sound from outside made her jump and then brought tears to her eyes. She sniffed and threw the door open before the culprit could even move to the other side of the car. He was a tall man with dark hair, sad blue eyes, and a hook for a hand.
She stood up and screwed up her face against the cold wind, trying to face him. "Killian... I..."
He shuffled his feet apologetically. "I'm sorry, love. I know you said to leave, but... I couldn't." He reached out and took her hand with his good one and for some reason she let him. "I want to help" he whispered.
She tried to laugh, but it came out choked by tears. "My guardian angel" she said. And then the tears were running down her face in earnest and after a few hesitant seconds, he drew her in close to his chest. There was something so familiar about the scent of his clothes, about the feeling of the curve of his hook pressed gently against her back, that she sobbed harder than she had since she'd given her son away.
Somehow, Killian managed to get them a decent hotel room. He fed her pizza and soda pop and she fell asleep with her hand wrapped around his hook.
Two days later he managed to pull some strings and get her a new apartment with three months rent payed in advance. He helped her move her meager belongings upstairs and she caught his elbow as he balanced two boxes in his arms.
"You're not allowed to disappear again." The intensity in her voice astonished even her.
Something in his expression shifted. "I won't, love. Not ever again."
They met for lunch at a nearby bar and grill, several times a week. Killian already knew that her favorite was grilled cheese and onion rings and his eyes lit up when she made sure to memorize his order in return.
They held weekend movie nights at her apartment. Killian brought Milk Duds and Emma put extra butter in the popcorn and they sprawled together on her sofa, laughing at corny romance movies and B-grade action flicks.
When Emma kissed him for the first time, it felt like the most natural thing in the world and Killian started to wonder what letting go of his revenge would feel like. After all, he already held the world in his arms.
Emma was twenty-eight when Killian told her everything. Afterwards, she sat on the sofa, blinking in disbelief as he paced in front of her, fingers twisted around his hook in fear.
She reached for him on his sixth pass.
"Killian." He knelt in front of her, trembling as he waited for her judgment.
She sighed and brushed back his dark hair from around his temples, letting her hand come to rest against his roughened cheek.
"This sounds crazy," she whispered. She gave a desperate little laugh and looked up at the ceiling as if trying to find the answers there. Killian closed his eyes and tried not to let the tears slip through.
"But I believe you," Emma said suddenly.
Killian blinked. "You what?"
"I believe you." She let her thumb trace the line of his cheekbone. "I love you and I believe you."
He swept her off the couch and twirled her around, planting kisses on her cheeks much to her delight. When he stood her back on her own two feet again she grinned.
"I mean, it's not much crazier than you being my guardian angel."
He laughed with her. "No, love I suppose not."
She leaned forward and kissed him again, letting him wrap his arms around her. "So what now... pirate?" she teased.
He held up his hook and watched it shine in the lamplight. "Now, we save Storybrooke. Together."