Note: First chapter is very Liam-focused, but the next chapter will be pretty heavily Captain Swan+Liam.
Years ago, when Liam Jones awoke to find that his father had sold him and his younger brother into servitude, he made a promise. He promised to never abandon his younger brother, to always be there for him in times of need. He carries that promise through years of servitude, and later years serving in the Navy. So when Liam Jones dies, he knows that he must continue holding true to that promise, because Killian is more alone than ever. Therefore, when given the option to pass through the Underworld or stay in the waiting place, he naturally chooses to wait.
As he waits, he entertains himself wondering what sort of man his brother is going to become. He dreams of Killian as Captain of Jewel, earning honors for his exemplary service to the Crown. Maybe Killian will be a guest of honor at a ball, dance with lords and ladies, all the things Liam so wanted to do. He wonders if his brother will fall love in, and have a family, be a better father than either of them had. He cannot wait to see the man, the hero, his little brother will become.
It isn't until the first soul arrives, a man murdered in cold blood by a pirate called Captain Jones that his vision becomes shattered. His brother isn't becoming a hero.
Killian Jones is becoming a monster.
-/-
One day, a woman arrives. Her name is Milah. She was a pirate in a previous life. She knew his brother in a previous life. She loved his brother in a previous life.
She doesn't seek him out, but somehow their paths cross in this waiting place. When she hears his name, her eyes go wide and she does her best to engage him. He complies, because he so wishes to know more about what Killian is doing and who he has become. He hopes everything he has heard about his brother has been a lie. It's not. His brother is most certainly a pirate, a killer. The thought would make him feel sick, if he could do so. (So strange it is, being dead yet still existing.)
He asks her how she died. She says her husband murdered her. Husband. Because she was technically a married woman, and she ran away with his brother, betraying vows to the gods and law. Liam tries so desperately to see what made Killian fall in love with this woman, and though she is quite pretty, he cannot reconcile why his brother would choose to build a life with someone who would so readily abandon her family, her sacred vows.
"He misses you so terribly," Milah whispers, and Liam can see the pain she feels for his brother reflected in his eyes. "He's doing this partially because he misses you, but also because that's who he is. He really does make an excellent pirate, and excellent captain, so fierce and strong."
She says this last statement with a hint of pride in her voice. It's at this, Liam decides, that he does not like her. Killian may have loved her, but she represents everything he never wanted to become.
He keeps his distance from her after that. He can see the hurt and rejection in her face, but pays it no heed. She is not his concern.
He does notice that she stays and waits. For Killian? Liam does not know the answer, but he feels a bubble of respect for this woman beginning to bloom. He still chooses not to speak to her.
-/-
Decades pass.
So do a string of victims murdered by man who calls himself Captain Hook.
So this is what failure feels like.
So this is his hell.
-/-
Milah still tries to form some companionship with him. The more victims of Captain Hook, the more he dislikes her. Deep down, Liam recognizes the unfairness of placing the blame on her for his younger brother's failings, but it is so much easier to do so than facing the truth of Killian's choices. She seems to recognize this, because she corners him one day, demanding his attention.
"I never wanted him to become this," she half-shouts, desperation and sadness seeping into every word. "I would have prevented it if I could."
Liam believes her, but still doesn't know if he can forgive her.
For what? He doesn't know anymore. Maybe Liam is losing a bit of himself, as well.
-/-
Centuries go by, and Liam continues to wait for his younger brother to die. He never expected it to take so long, thought Killian would have died in some reckless act long ago. All pirates die eventually. Mistakes are made, vengeance wrought. Based on the number of people he's met who have died by his brother's own hand – hook, he mentally corrects – Liam imagines that there exist many who want Killian Jones dead.
Still, his brother lives on and Liam waits. Always one to defy expectations, that brother of his.
Milah waits too. Waits on her missing son. Waits on Killian. Neither pass through the Underworld. He sees the weariness in her eyes, knows it well because he wears it too. He still doesn't engage with her much, still hasn't forgiven her in encouraging his brother to be someone awful, someone he shouldn't be. She loved (loves?) the pirate. Liam hates him.
(Not really. He will always love his little brother, but he can hate what Killian has become.)
(How he wanted his brother to be a better man.)
(Why didn't he become a better man?)
-/-
One day his father dies.
The reunion does not go well. First, because Liam still harbors resentment over being sold into slavery, over being abandoned. Second, because his father tells him about the second family and the second Liam. Third, because Killian apparently committed patricide. Liam is hardly surprised at the latter's actions. Nothing surprises him about Killian's death count anymore. Even this.
Still…there is something nice about seeing his father again.
Liam wonders if he will wait for Killian or his even younger son, even goes as far as asking him to do so. Liam does not want to be alone in his vigil, hopes that maybe they can reconcile, prays his father will join him. He does not. Instead Brennan Jones chooses to pass on through and leave this waiting place, abandoning his son once more.
Liam thinks maybe he can understand why Killian killed him. Maybe.
-/-
More people die. Such is life (death?) in the Underworld. Some pass on, some stay.
A woman named Cora arrives. She does not move through, instead doing her best to take over this little corner of the Underworld. Not many people fight her on this, and she succeeds. Liam pays her no mind. Continues to wait.
Killian will be here someday. He's already waited centuries. What's a few more?
-/-
Milah's husband dies. Former husband. The one she abandoned to take her place by Killian's side. For some reason, she seeks him out. Liam understands, but doesn't follow. Nor does he seek out the boy from Neverland, the one known as Peter Pan. Both apparently know of his brother, but Liam has long since learned from his impulsiveness and lack of self-preservation.
(Sometimes he berates himself for his stupidity, because maybe it means his brother would have never wandered down the wrong path.)
Later, Milah finds him. Centuries have passed, and she still has not given up on him out of a sense of loyalty to Killian. Liam doesn't quite understand, he's been nothing but awful to her, but he's starting to appreciate it.
"According to Rumplestiltkin, Killian is alive, but we knew that," Milah begins, but there is a hint of something in her voice that he can't quite place. "I think he was trying to hurt me by telling me this, but he says Killian's moved on and is in love with someone else, someone who is far better than I will ever was."
"Oh." Liam says, because he doesn't know what else to say.
"I'm happy for him." Milah says firmly, and Liam can hear the truth of her words. "All I want for him is for him to be happy."
Liam wants the same thing, but he doesn't know if he believes in Killian's version of happy anymore.
-/-
"My son died." Milah tells him one day. They've reached a bit of a truce since her former husband's death and apparent resurrection. He hasn't seen her in what felt like a long time, and now he understands why. "He's moved on now, though. He doesn't have any more unfinished business."
"I'm sorry," Liam offers lamely. He doesn't really know what else to say, the questions to ask. It all feels so deeply personal. He spent hundreds of years attempting to avoid this woman. He does not know how to proceed from here.
"There's no reason to be. We made our peace before he moved on." Milah says simply. She keeps her voice neutral, and Liam wonders what emotions she is masking. "It's a funny thing, this place. We spend our time here waiting for our loved ones to die, and when they do it feels like the worst thing in the world."
"I thought you said there was nothing to be sorry about?"
"There isn't, but Bae's passing made me realize that no matter how long I waited to apologize, nothing could prepare me for the moment when I saw him again." She sighs heavily, twists the rings around her fingers. "He forgave me, I think. At least he did in his own way. That's all I could have wanted."
"That's good." Liam is happy for her. He knows the pain in waiting, but he also knows that Milah did not seek him out just to talk about her dead son. They aren't that good of friends yet. Or maybe they are. It's been so long since he had a real friend.
"My son, he spent a lot of time with Killian. A lot of time with Killian recently" Milah begins, and that's when the shoe drops. His brother, the entire reason they are in one another's orbits. He wants her to continue, but doesn't at the same time.
Liam realizes he is afraid.
"And what is my dear brother up to? More piracy with his lover?"
Milah looks a little stung by his comments, and he regrets it a bit. He doesn't want to destroy their tentative friendship, but Killian is still a sore spot. She holds out some sort of hope for him. Liam does not.
"My son says he's a good man. At least he is now. On his way to become a real hero, even."
"I'll believe it when I see it."
-/-
The first time Liam sees his brother, he almost doesn't believe it. Centuries of waiting in a land of in-between can do that do a person. When he truly accepts that yes, Killian is most certainly dead, he does what any older brother would do when faced with the opportunity to confront his adrift younger brother – he punches him.
"To think one of few actual highlights of being here was the chance to actually see you." Killian says after, his one hand rubbing his jaw. "I suppose you've heard something of my exploits then?"
"A pirate, little brother? A murderer?" Liam feels centuries worth of pain and torment spilling out of him as he takes in Killian's form. Killian looks so tired and broken, so unlike the lieutenant they left behind. "Whatever happened to your hero's journey?"
"If it comforts you, I died a hero."
It doesn't, and as Killian walks away, shame written across his face, Liam realizes that the circumstance of his little brother's death doesn't comfort the pirate either.
-/-
Not long after his brother's arrival to the Underworld, more come, only they're different than most. They're not dead. They appear to be on a mission of sorts, almost certainly to bring someone they lost, someone they love. It happens every now and then, someone dreaming much to large about defying the laws of life, death, and magic. They'll fail. Everyone else does. Still…something seems fresh about the determination in their eyes, and an unfamiliar electricity bounces in the air.
The living's arrival causes a most unprecedented stir among the dead, not because of what they are, but who. They seem to know Cora and the boy from Neverland– Pan. He hears whispers about an Evil Queen, a royal family, and a Savior. Not that Liam pays much notice, because over the course of centuries, there have been many evil queens and royal families, and though he hasn't met a Savior, it doesn't mean there isn't more than one. It isn't until he hears a name that he takes true notice of the adventurers, one that he hasn't forgotten since Milah entered his world all those years ago – "Rumplestiltskin."
-/-
"They'll explain it all better than I can," Milah says as she leads him to the lodging where the living are holed up, making base and making plans, "but trust me when I say that you'll want to help them. They're here for Killian, Liam. They want to bring him back."
This piques his interest. Since learning his brother became a pirate, disavowed every value Liam had attempted to instill in his heart, Liam had always assumed that if Killian wasn't murdered out of vengeance or mutiny, he would die by royal decree. Never once did he imagine that royalty would be marching into the Underworld to circumvent death for him. Little Brother, just what did you do?
He is met with a room of unfamiliar faces, a varied mix of distrust and desperation painted across every one. One face in particular stands out to him, a woman with striking green eyes that reflect such sadness, but also a hint of powerful determination. A woman with dark hair and equally dark clothing is the first to speak.
"And who is this?"
"My name is Liam Jones, and I've been told you're here for my brother." He watches as recognition blooms across all of their faces. He also sees something else there – hope?
Without prompting, the woman with green eyes launches into an explanation about how they arrived in the Underworld, how she doesn't want Killian's apparent heroic death – so his brother wasn't lying – to be in vain, and how she plans to bring in back. She says this all quickly, as if saying it enough could will her desires to become reality, as if continuing to talk will stave off the tears that prick at the corner of her eyes.
She says it in a way that convinces him of one thing: this woman so desperately loves his brother, and she will do anything to get him back.