What the bloody hell was he doing here?
Neverland held no good memories for Hook. On his first visit to the blasted island, he was still known as Killian Jones. But then his brother died, and Killian Jones died along with him. On the second trip, he met Baelfire, the son of his first love, Milah, and the boy he came to love as a son of his own. And now Baelfire is dead, the heartbreak still fresh in his mind. So what was he doing here now, in the place that had brought him nothing but pain and sorrow?
He took a swig of his rum and stared across the fire. Emma Swan sat on a rock across the way, staring at the map Pan had given her. That nasty little boy had kidnapped Swan's son. Now here they all were, the oddest assortment of heroes and villains. He felt out of place. He was nothing but a pirate. For hundreds of years he'd lived his life on the high seas with no care in the world for anything save himself and his unquenchable thirst for revenge against Rumplestiltskin. But now he'd gone so far as to transport the Crocodile to this bloody island on his very own ship, and he'd somehow managed not to have lodged his hook in Rumplestiltskin's heart yet. He couldn't fathom how.
He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and watched as Emma got up to pace around the clearing. Pan had told her that in order to read the map, she would need to admit who she really was. Hook had no idea who Emma was. He'd only known her for a short time, and all of that she'd spent hating him. After all, he was nothing but a selfish pirate. What kind of woman would want a man like him?
Want? Want a man like him? Where the bloody hell had that thought come from? Hook took another deep, long drink from his flask. The rum gave him a nice buzz, and wasn't about to lose that. Then he would be left alone with his thoughts.
Thoughts of this new woman. Thought like he hadn't had in decades, centuries, not like this. He'd felt lust for many a woman since Milah, of course, lust fueled by the cloak of darkness and an evening of heavy drinking. But this was something different. This feeling had the ability to send him, a man of few morals, across realms to save the child of the woman that had abandoned him at the top of a bean stock and later knocked him unconscious without a second thought. This feeling had caused him to abandon his life's mission and sent straight back into a land he'd hoped he would never return to. This feeling scared him more than any magic he'd ever come across in all his years traveling the realms.
No. He would not do this to himself. He would not give up everything he had worked for all these years just because his heart sometimes skipped a beat when Emma's green eyes glanced his way. Every time he felt Emma's eyes on him, actually. But that wasn't important. What was important was the fight against the Crocodile that he'd committed to years ago. Hook may be the type of man to throw away his plans for a night because of a beautiful woman, but not for any longer. He promised himself that just as soon as the boy was found, he would bury his hook in Rumplestiltskin's chest.
"You run out of that rum yet, Captain?" Emma asked as she passed by where he sat. Hook sighed.
Perhaps he would stick around just a little bit longer.