Once Upon a Time and its characters are property of Disney thus I don't own any of this. No copyright infringement intended.***Spoilers from Seasons 3 through 6 included in the story that involve Killian "Hook" Jones and Emma Swan. Enjoy! My first fanfiction in well over a year.-T. Payne

Iconic. Cliched. A hallmark of the man that I've been attached to for longer than most humans can say. I might be a part of him for the rest of his life but I didn't start here. Before I'd arrived on the scene Killian had already lived an interesting life. He'd lost a brother in Neverland and the woman he'd loved. Rumple brought me into the picture the day that he'd taken Killian's right hand.

He'd been a selfish man before that day but it only got worse with the disappearance of his right righthand. A long burning hatred fueled his pursuits. His thirst for revenge never stopped. It had almost killed him more than once. Something happened to change him. It wasn't so much a what, as it had been a whom. Her name Emma Swan.

A friendship had been formed between them over a series of adventures. I recall a towering bean stock as one of them. Yes, he and Emma had exchanged a mind-altering kiss. Being an attachment allows an up-close view nobody and nothing else can get. Slowly, the need for revenge within him had started to fade a little at a time.

Killian had transformed into a man driven by the pursuit of a woman after years the ceaseless tail chasing of revenge. When Emma found herself trapped in the past, he'd followed her there. His passage into and out of that place had cost him the one thing that all pirates treasure above all things, his ship. No captain in his right mind would do such a thing, which probably meant that he might not have been. Women have that power. Emma did. It happened again, only longer and with more feeling than the first time, the kiss.

Our life with Emma is never boring and it hadn't been from the start. How many face massive snow monsters? How many guys have their hearts removed by a wicked sorcerer and then have them put back in place by the woman that lived in it? How many men find the happy ending no villain is supposed to have? How many men die for than once for a woman and come back to love her still? Killian is unique I know. For a brief time, I had become something to look at. Rumple had given him back his hand. I returned to my rightful place.

He and Emma would go through more misadventures and miseries that always seemed to work out of the better in the end. Years passed and so did his lust for revenge. Killian had been the man that had to fight Emma's darkness as well as his own. His last act to end the darkness had been the end of his life. Emma followed him into the underworld with the conviction of a woman in love. It had broken Killian's heart to not leave for Storybrooke with her. In reality, part of him had gone with her. How did this end? You guessed it, they were reunited again thanks to his efforts in defeating Hades. Along the way, Killian had found the strength to forgive himself. Unforgiveness is a terrible trap, Killian had lived in it for too long.

I knew his past sins. I don't think Killian ever imagined that his past sins would get in the way of what he'd desired most. I'd felt the pulse of his racing heart through every inch of my metal the moment he'd asked David for his blessing to marry Emma. This race hadn't happened in years. This Killian had replaced my old master. Love, in all its magic, had done what little else could. In that moment, his murderous past deed now threatened everything. Instead of admitting to it right away, Killian drank. On one knee, he proposed. He'd meant it but the silent deception had attacked his conscience.

That past sin, did indeed, create problems. Only his absence after the first broken engagement hadn't been of his free volition. The mastermind behind it, Gideon, had targeted Emma. The only way to kill her was to send Killian away in another time and place. If not for a dash of magic and a seashell, Emma would've never known the whole story. What saved us and who saved us again?

Magic and Emma.

Is that your final answer?

Yes and Yes.

Another happy ending followed, of course. Killian proposed again, with the promise of a relationship that excluded secrets. Honesty, nothing but, for the future. Like all real life, snags got in the way. Gideon was that snag. The Black Fairy controlled that snag. Emma tried pushing us away. The problem and solution of love is that it never gives up. Killian refused to give up. His desire and love for her powered his determination to stick by her no matter the consequence. Believe me, this tore at Killian worse than when I arrived. Love's power is stronger than hate.

Killian and Emma fought for their happy ending. Standing on a rooftop, in the company of guests, he admitted what this old hook had known from the beginning. His heart had left his ship long ago. His heart had belonged to her. This might have been news to spectators and to Emma, maybe, but not to me. She'd sent his pulse to previously unimagined highs from the first kiss. Emma had confessed to finding something in Killian she never imagined possible. Happy ending yet? Not quite. More disaster came.

A dark, insidious cloud enveloped everyone thus changing the story. Emma ended up in a mental institution unaware of their marriage. We, Killian and I, ended up in the Enchanted Forest. Things changed for the better, I think, when the curse suddenly broke. We were back in the dark streets of Storybrooke once more. Killian became the Killian I'd come to like once more. Emma completed him. There she stood with a sword in her hand, crushing Hook's heart without trying again. A new crisis. We stood with her family as she faced off against Gideon.

The tension of his muscles kept him from interfering in the fight. Killian's love for her prevented his knew jerk reaction. His heart stopped when Gideon's sword thrust through her body. Killian's breath stopped in his throat. I can't say what he'd been thinking, since I'm not his brain. I do know that I hung limp at his side. His happy ending had been destroyed. What else could it be?

Just as Killian had given up on hope, Henry saved the day. How? A tear. That was it, a simple tear.

A blinding light burst out of her lifeless body and into the surroundings. Everything changed in an instant. Everything had gone back to normal. No, BETTER THAN NORMAL. The happy ending had come. Nothing in the near or distant future threatened it. Killian's left hand isn't the only thing that she touches. She warms me too. I love the woman as much as Killian does.