So, this was inspired by an amazing Captain Swan video with Spike's speech to Buffy. If you haven't seen it...go watch it now. Anyways, I hope you like it, and I may or may not make a new chapter, but if I do it won't be until after I finish my other two stories. :) Enjoy!
She leaned her head up against the door, trying to hold back the tears that had been threatening her since they had arrived on this godforsaken island.
Two weeks.
Two weeks they had been searching for him, and they hadn't found so much as a hint to where Greg and Tamara had taken him. How the hell could two people who had lived in the…whatever the hell her realm was even called, the normal realm, manage to survive two weeks in a foreign land.
She felt her eyes well up unwillingly and she fought against them again. She wasn't much of a crier, but Henry was her life, and if she lost him…no, she couldn't let herself believe that. She would not let herself believe that.
She rubbed her damp eyes, thank god she had elected to have a cabin to herself, no one to come by and worry about her crying. No one to lie and tell her it was all okay when it wasn't. No one to give her the whole 'we'll always find each other' bullshit that her family was known for.
So much for being the savior Emma thought bitterly, sinking to the floor in defeat. Two weeks was too long of a time they should have found him by now. Even if Neverland sometimes felt like hell, it wasn't a big place. He surely would have turned up…unless…no.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" She managed to say out loud, just before the first tear fell down her cheek. Once it had fallen, the others followed close behind. She brought her knees to her chest and wanted nothing more than to slip into darkness.
Love is weakness…Cora's words echoed in her mind, and Emma was haunted by how true they actually were, what had love gotten her? Parents that left her the day she was born to fend for herself, a man that handed her to the police at the first sign of trouble. Love is strength my ass,all it had done was leave a gaping hole in her heart.
And now the one thing that she had opened her heart up to, the one person that she truly loved was gone, kidnapped by a psychotic woman with a magical taser and some nobody from Pennsylvania on an island filled with blood sucking mermaids, temperamental fairies, and a group of boys whose favorite past time was attacking random strangers, it's a wonder you kept up hope for this long.
Henry was gone, and it was time to face the facts, he wasn't coming back. She would never see the big brown eyes that lit up at the word operation or the mop of brown hair that never seemed to stay down. She'd never even hear the word mom said with such pride and confidence, like she was the best person in the world, even when she was convinced she was the worst.
"I'm so sorry Henry." She put her head down on her knees, and for the first time in two weeks, she allowed herself to feel all the emotions that had been building up. All the dread hit her at once, and she let it, suppressing the outbursts, but allowing herself to really cry.
It could have been a few minutes or it could have been a few hours before she finally stopped. She heard the sound of footsteps on the deck above. Who the hell was up at this time? She listened carefully. There was no tap of a cane, so it wasn't Gold, and there wasn't the familiar click of heels, eliminating Regina, and she could only assume what her parents were doing a few cabins away, and that left only one person.
She couldn't tell if the pirate captain was getting better, or if her tolerance level for him was lowering, but she had to admit, he was probably the only person on the damn boat that she didn't hate at that very moment. He knew Neverland better than anyone. He really was their only hope at getting Henry back. Even when she had practically begged him, she had known it was a long shot, but she had been desperate.
She wiped the tears away. His timing was always terrible, and she had no doubt that if he heard her up, he would want to talk with her. Being this vulnerable to him, hell, to anybody right now, was not an option.
Sure enough, there was a familiar knock on the door, and Emma held back all the curses that came to mind as she wiped her face again, knowing it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference.
"What?" She said swinging the door open, avoiding his gaze in a vain attempt to hide the fact that she had been crying.
"I came to tell you that the…" His voice trailed off as he studied her face carefully, she prayed that he would just ignore it. "What's wrong?"
Damn.
"Nothing." She replied, trying to sound indifferent as she turned and walked to the bed that she slept on, allowing him to step into the room.
"For someone who can tell when someone's lying, you're a terrible liar yourself." He pointed out, walking to where she stood but not sitting next to her, thankfully.
"Not lying." She lied again.
"Swan." She looked away from him, why did he have to come by her cabin when she was at her most vulnerable state.
"Swan, look at me." She continued to avoid his gaze, and he crouched down, now eye level with her, don't do it Emma.
"Emma, please." The use of her name made her look at him. It was the moment she regretted it. There was concern laced in his handsome, not handsome,features. Why did he have to act like he cared so much?
"What?" She asked, she hated how weak her voice sounded when she asked him that, how vulnerable she was in front of him, especially now.
"What's wrong Emma?" He said it again. She tried so hard to find any traces of manipulation or lies or anything to make her doubt his intentions, but there was nothing.
"What do you want?"
"No." He said simply, never taking his eyes off her.
"No, what?"
"I'll tell you why I came here when you tell me what's wrong." His piercing blue eyes met hers, and she was almost tempted to tell him what was wrong, almost.
"Then you're going to sit there all night." She challenged, waiting for him to back off.
"Then I will stay here all night." He didn't move a single inch as he kept his eyes on her, it felt like hours as they continued to stare each other down, just waiting for the other to back down, but neither was willing to do so.
"What do you want?" She finally broke the silence, simply sitting there and staring her down was breaking her walls down.
He remained silent, bastard.
"Hook, I don't have time for this." She insisted, trying to make him see just how ridiculous he looked, simply crouching in front of her. He continued his silent stare down.
"You're going to have to make time love, because I am not leaving here until you tell me." She hated him. She hated him with every ounce of her being. Why couldn't he just leave her like everyone else, why did he have to fight her at every turn, or try and break down her walls, why did he try when no one else cared.
"Leave." She said, but her voice wavered because deep down, she knew that he wouldn't, and even deeper down, she didn't want him to.
"I'm not going anywhere Emma." The way he said the words he conveyed something that no one else seemed to. He managed to imply something so much more in 5 words than any other person that she ever had known had.
"Please." She hated begging but if he stayed she was going to fall apart and of all the people here he was the last one that she wanted to lose herself in front of.
"Not until you tell me what's wrong."
"You know what's wrong." She said darkly. It was the entire reason why he was here in the first place. It was the only thing that she ever allowed herself to fall apart over.
"We're going to find him." He said, not even a hint of a lie was there. He truly believed that they could still find him.
"How do you know?" She asked darkly.
"Because I know you."
"No you don't." She shook her head insistently. A pirate couldn't know her. A pirate couldn't understand her motivations and will power, he just couldn't.
"Yes I do, just like I know that we will find him." The way he said it was so different than the comforting way her parents had said it. Oddly, it made her feel better than anytime they had ever said it.
"How?"
"Because you won't give up, and neither will I." God damn it. How did he always know exactly what to say?
"I…" She couldn't even finish her sentence. She didn't have an argument against him, no witty retort that helped her bring the walls back up, so she just looked away.
"Emma, listen, just listen." She wasn't even sure if she could agree, so she just nodded.
"I have lived for a very long time, I've seen and done things you can't even begin to imagine, most of them I'm not exactly proud of." His voice seemed to falter a minute at the last line.
"I've been living like I was dead since the day that Milah died, I lost my faith in people that day, my belief in people, for three hundred years, I didn't believe in one person, until you." She looked at him, met his piercing blue eyes, and saw just how truthful he was being.
"From the moment that you tied me up, I knew you were different, there was a drive in you that no one else seemed to have, you had something to fight for, and nothing was going to stop you, especially not me." A small smile crept onto his face as he continued on. It was like he was reliving a happy memory, not one where she tied him to a tree and told him he was an ogre's dinner.
"And the more I got to know you, the harder you fought, you climbed a beanstalk, you fought a giant, you fought me and Cora, and even when you got back, you continued on fighting. I have never, ever seen someone fight for their loved ones the way you do, not in 300 years. You're looking at me right now, feeling so defeated, but you still have that spark in you, that will to continue fighting even when you know it's a worthless cause, I see it, I've seen it since the day I met you, and I will continue to see it, because that is who you are, it's you will always be."
She wasn't sure if he was finished with his speech, but even if he was, she couldn't say anything, she was completely dumbstruck.
"If anyone can find Henry, it's you." He said the words with such conviction that she actually started to believe him. She couldn't not believe him.
She sat there for a few minutes, just looking at him, and he continued to meet her gaze, undaunted by her silence. She could never understand how well he read her, how he always knew exactly what to say.
"What if I can't?" She asked softly, letting the remaining walls around her heart crumble.
"You will." He wiped away a single tear from her cheek before offering her his hand, "Come, Rumplestiltskin might have a way to find him, but he needs you." She took his hand, and he pulled her up, careful to make sure he didn't impale her with his hook.
As he pulled her to the door she stopped forcing him to stop.
"What is it, love?" He asked her with confusion.
"Why are you helping us?" She asked him, a slight glimmer of hope peeking through the crumbled walls.
"You know why love." And he walked out of the room without another word, leaving Emma to think through his answer.
Well, I really hope that you liked it. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.