This is up here for the CS Fic Swap. It is unbeta'd and unfinished, but it will be continued by another author. I am very excited!
Emma sat in the crow's nest of the Jolly Roger, her knees hugged tightly to her chest, her head resting on the wood behind her. The stars above her were strange, a million pin points of light, twinkling at her and looking no more than an arm's length away, though she didn't dare reach up. Of all the disturbing parts of the Peter Pan story, the stars had frightened her most as a child. Stars that could wink and talk were far more terrifying to her than a boy who couldn't grow up and cared for nobody but himself, or a vicious and spiteful fairy, or a crocodile that ticked like a clock, or even a pirate with a hook for a hand.
At that last thought she craned her neck to see over the edge of the crow's nest down to the deck below. There he stood at the helm, gazing into the distance, his hand grasping the wheel and his hook resting on the shelf of wood in front of it, the moonlight glinting off the metal making it appear as if it were glowing.
She was aboard the Jolly Roger. And Captain Hook – Captain freaking Hook – was piloting his ship.
How the hell was she ever going to find her son in this ridiculous fantasy land?
She heard the tell-tale creak of someone coming up the stairs towards the helm and slumped down so she wouldn't be seen by the newcomer. She didn't want to see anyone on board, her parents included, at the moment.
The footsteps stopped but she heard nothing else; Hook and whoever had joined him remained silent. Emma wondered which one of her shipmates it could be that would come up above deck and have nothing to say to the pirate. Maybe it was Gold. Maybe he and Hook were staring each other down. Again.
She was almost tempted to look over the edge to see who it was when she heard Hook's voice.
"Are you here for a purpose, your majesty? Or do you just wish to admire the view?"
Emma rolled her eyes. The man had the uncanny ability to make any sentence sound dirty.
Unperturbed by his manner, Regina spoke in her usual, self-possessed, dangerously sweet way. "I'm surprised you're up here alone, Hook. It would be all too easy for Gold to change his mind and end your uneasy truce."
"Let him try," Hook growled. Emma could easily imagine his face, the narrowed eyes; the clenched teeth. "Magic is different here. But my hook will slice through his flesh all the same."
"Oh will it?" Emma stifled a gasp when she recognized Gold's voice. She hadn't heard him approach.
"Aye." The hatred in that one syllable was palpable. "And the mermaids can have at your mangled form."
Emma instinctively reached to feel for her gun.
"Enough!" Regina commanded. "This will not help us find Henry."
"No, indeed it won't." Hook agreed, with what Emma was sure was a forced calm.
"What do you care of Henry's fate?" Emma could hear the sneer in Gold's voice.
There was silence, then, for such a long moment that Emma peered over the edge of the crow's nest again. Sure enough, Hook and Gold were glaring at each other with Regina in between, a restraining hand held out towards each of them. Emma's stomach rolled with her anxiety. If Regina was the coolest head here they were in for worlds of trouble.
"It doesn't matter," she said, fixing first Gold and then Hook with a stare, her fierce expression at odds with her voice, which sounded desperate.
"So you're willing to entrust the safety of your son's return to him," Gold asked, disgust plain on his face, even from Emma's height.
"You're one to talk, crocodile," Hook leaned towards Gold menacingly, pressing into Regina's hand and causing her balance to falter. She grabbed the wheel to steady herself and the ship lurched, causing Emma to slip down into the crow's nest and bang her shoulder against the side. She hissed in pain and immediately worried that her position was broadcast to the three below, but they were obviously too involved in their own standoff to notice the noise from above.
"Your son spent his whole life running from you; why would you think his son would want anything to do with you?" Hook shouted as the ship righted.
Grasping her throbbing shoulder Emma repositioned herself so she could see below once again. Hook held the wheel with his right hand, his left arm outstretched towards Gold threateningly. Somehow Regina ended up behind Gold so nothing separated the two men.
"Do not speak of my son!" Gold shouted back. "It's your fault he's dead!"
Hook recoiled slightly at this, dropping his left arm to his side and, to Emma's surprise, did not respond to Gold. Instead Regina stepped around so she once again stood between them.
"Please!" she said, more a command than a plea. "You can kill each other once we've found Henry. But for now, you need to stop!"
Hook continued to glare at Gold but remained silent. Gold, however, did not.
"He's a pirate," he said, disgusted, "who cares for no one but himself."
Regina smiled smugly. "I have no doubts about his commitment to help us." Hook's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly at Regina and Emma wondered what in that statement would cause him to be suspicious.
"You'll live to regret that, dearie," Gold said.
"Don't be so sure." Regina punctuated her words with slight nods of her head. "I think he's quite motivated on this quest as he's taken a keen interest in Henry's other mother."
"Ms. Swan?" The shock on Gold's face mirrored what Emma suspected her expression was. She slumped back down, not daring to look at Hook's reaction. She could imagine the complacent look on Regina's face and focused on thinking about that.
"Indeed." Emma's stomach clenched inexplicably when she heard him speak that one word. She glanced back over the edge and was surprised to see the pirate flash a toothy grin.
"Deny it all you want, Hook…"
"Oh, I deny nothing." He kept one hand on the wheel but stepped towards Regina. "Jealous, your majesty?" He tilted his head so his face nearly touched hers, running his tongue slowly along his bottom lip, his gaze predatory. "You need but say the word and I'd be happy to…"
He got no further than that when, with a grotesque squish, Regina thrust her hand into his chest.
"If I didn't need you to pilot this ship, I would crush your heart right now."
Regina must have squeezed her hand because Hook grunted in pain and sagged against the wheel. Emma stood and pulled out her gun before questioning her actions. What was she going to do? Shoot Regina?
"Surely you'd be kind enough to allow me that honour." The excited, nearly manic gleam in Rumplestiltskin's eye turned Emma's stomach and she finally called out.
"Enough!"
All three heads turned to look up at her and Regina's – thankfully empty - hand pulled out of Hook's chest.
"If we're going to find and save Henry, we can't be bickering amongst ourselves."
"I think threatening to rip out my heart goes far beyond bickering, love."
"You deserve far worse…" Rumplestiltskin growled, eyes narrowed.
"Stop!" Emma shouted down at them. "I get it, you all hate each other but for right now we have to work together. And if you can't stomach that, well, it's a big ship. Go somewhere else."
Hook practically beamed at Rumplestiltskin. "You heard the lass." He widened his eyes. "Go away."
Emma sighed. The man did not know when to shut up.
Thankfully, with one more glare at Hook, Rumplestiltskin snapped his fingers and vanished. Regina sighed and shook her head.
"Because walking down the steps would be too difficult." She turned and did just that, muttering to herself the entire time things that Emma could not hear from her height. Once Regina had disappeared below deck Hook turned back up to Emma.
"So are you going to come down, love? Or shall I just go back to pretending I don't know you're up there watching me?"
Emma stood near the top of the stairs, hanging on to the railing for balance and narrowed her eyes at Hook. Her descent from the crow's nest had been less than graceful and she was kind of annoyed that he had witnessed it. She staggered over to the wheel, ignoring the amused quirk of his lips.
"I suppose you're enjoying this?"
"Aye," he answered without meeting her gaze. "I've always found enjoyment in your company, darling." He raised an eyebrow and flashed her a quick smile.
She rolled her eyes then narrowed them, deciding to get some answers.
"Why are you really here, Hook?"
"Well, it's my ship." He grinned at her in the way he did when he was hiding something.
"You know what I mean," she whispered, leaning closer to him. "What's in this for you?"
"What makes you think there's something in it for me? Hmm?"
Emma sighed. His bravado didn't fool her; she could see right through it.
"Oh, come on," she said, taking a few steps to close the distance between them and grabbing the wheel for balance. He glared pointedly at her hand and then scowled up at her through his lashes. She didn't move her hand and he pressed his lips into a frown. "You allowed your mortal enemy aboard your ship. I'm supposed to believe you did it out of the goodness of your heart?"
He regarded her for a moment, searching her face, before clenching his jaw and turning his head away from her. "Your parents and… Rumplestiltskin… weren't the boy's only grandparents."
Emma's eyes widened as she looked at him. How had she never thought of it before? She had all the pieces; she just hadn't put them together.
She caught a glimpse of the markings on the wood in front of the wheel, markings she had seen Neal point out to Henry when he was explaining how to steer the ship. Markings that might very well have been etched into the wood by a metal hook.
"Neal…" she said quietly and saw Hook's jaw twitch. "He knew how to sail this ship." She took another step and closed the last of the distance between them. "You taught him."
"Aye," he answered, his voice laced with bitterness. She reached out and placed a hand on his arm.
"Save your pity, Swan," he said, glancing at her quickly, his expression best described as haunted, before he turned to look out over the water again. "There's not enough rum in the all the realms should you and I ever stop to mourn our losses."