—
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Cracking open one eye, Hook resisted the urge to try and smother himself with the terminally flat, supremely uncomfortable pillow as he listed to strange caterwauling of sounds in his odd little medical room. He spared a quick angry glance at the gleaming silver handcuff that secured him to his bed, and took a moment to curse Emma Swan one more time for NOT just letting him die.
Or letting the Crocodile find him and just finish him off. His whole bloody body felt like it was on fire and after centuries of waiting, dreaming of his revenge, to come so close, to at least dent the Crocodile's heart…
and then…
nothing.
He didn't feel anything. Everything around him felt completely muted, dull, limp. Was this the feeling of success, he pondered as he looked restlessly around his room. Nothing in the room held his interest for very long before he was bored out of his skull.
"Oy!" He called out as he saw a person walk by down the hallway in front of his room.
The nurse walked in, displeased at her patient's disposition. "Can I help you?" She asked.
"Yes, you can bloody well help." He snapped, then he realized that angry and bitter would not free him from Swan's temporary prison. Hook quickly pushed a smile to his face. Fuck, even that small gesture was painful. "A little help, love?" He asked as he lightly jangled his right wrist with the handcuff attached. Hook hoped that his charms would work despite being wrapped up like corpse and completely battered by that bleeding motorized demon carriage.
The tall nurse gave him an evil eye as she checked over his vitals. "I don't think so. Sheriff Swan gave us specific orders to not uncuff you. No matter what you said, no matter what you did, no matter how much your attempted to charm us, until she was back." She gave him a reproachful glare. "She said that sometimes you could be charming, if you wanted and to not be fooled." The nurse put her hands on her hips and continued to glare at him.
Hook blew out an exasperated breath, dammit Swan. She knew all his tricks and they had only been in each other's company one afternoon. "C'mon lass." He jiggled his right wrist again, carefully. "No one will know. It's just a slight bit uncomfortable." Hook worked on arranging his face into a small pout, one that he had used countless times before on vulnerable young maids.
Crossing her arms, the nurse shot him a dirty look. He continued to grin at her until she sighed. Success! Hook thought with glee, but the nurse suddenly leaned over, away from him, to flip a switch on a small box mounted near his bed. "Here. This should keep your mind off things."
Suddenly the box sprung to life, tiny people moving around inside of it. Hook tried to slide away from it in his bed, wary of this new magic. "What in seven blazes is that magic picture box?"
"It's called television." The nurse pressed the small remote into his hand. "You press these buttons to control the sound and these here for the channels. That should keep you busy and out of our hair." With that, the nurse spun on her heel and marched out of his room.
"Bloody wench." Hook muttered, cautiously pushing the buttons randomly and watching the pictures change on the magical box. "This is ridiculous."
After watching three sets of strange stories about a magical rag (picks up all your mess!), magical dancing (makes you more attractive!), and then some strange chopping device that seemed to make you more friends, Hook started pushing more buttons on his controller in desperation.
Maybe I am dead after all and the Crocodile killed me. He frantically thought as he looked at the machines. This is what hell must be like. Infernal damnation by incessant bloody beeping and nurses who liked to terrorize you by poking and prodding and stabbing you with sharp needles every time you closed your eyes.
The machines in his room wouldn't stop bloody beeping and he had slept on rocks more comfortable than the bed he was chained to. He longed for the sound of waves from his Captain's quarters instead of this, noisy, beeping hellhole.
Suddenly, a small voice came through on the moving picture box, taking his thoughts away from his sudden fears. "Does it got any sports in it?"
Hook peered at the screen for a long moment. He saw an older man respond to the small boy, sitting on the bed. "Are you kidding? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, True Love, miracles…." Hmmph. Hook thought. Finally something that makes sense in the madness.
He shifted around in his torturous bed and peered at the small screen expectantly. The older man continued to speak. "The Princess Bride, by S. Morgenstern, Chapter One. Buttercup was raised on a small farm in the country of Florin."
Unbeknown to Hook, he had just tuned into the first day of the Princess Bride marathon.
—
"As you wish."
"That day she was amazed to discover that when he was saying 'As you wish', what he meant was, 'I love you.' And even more amazing was the day she realized she truly loved him back."
Hook snorted, but as he was sorely tempted to hit the buttons again, he decided that he might as well see what happened to this love sick fool.
Three hundred years taught Hook that true love only brought pain.
—-
"Oy! Wench! Lass! Someone!" Hook yelled about frantically.
The same nurse came running back in the room, prepared for tragedy and still most unhappy about this wench business, only to see her patient gesturing wildly at his television with his stump. "I'm called a nurse, you know," she told him as she came to a stop in front of his bed.
"Nurse!" Hook repeated and gave her a pointed look. "It's gone! I can't find it again," he pointed at the television desperately.
The nurse tried to hold back her laugh. "What were you watching?"
Hook looked up at her, irritated. "I know not of it's title. Only it's about this pirate and his lass. He was wrestling a giant rat…"
A moment passed before realization dawned and the nurse chuckled slightly. She grabbed the remote from his hand. "Luckily, I'm a big Princess Bride fan too. It's just the first day of the marathon. You're in for a real treat."
Unable to help himself, Hook breathed a sigh of relief as Westley and Buttercup came back on his screen. "Aye. Thank you."
As the nurse turned to leave, Hook couldn't help but ask one more question. "You said, 'The Princess Bride' - is this a well known fairy tale in your realm?"
The nurse gave him a small smile. "If you grew up within a certain time frame, then yes. It's very well known. I think that probably every girl out there always wanted a pirate that says 'As you wish' to her."
Hook mulled it over to himself. "As you wish," he muttered testing the words on his tongue.
When it was all said and done, Hook watched "The Princess Bride" each time it aired during the marathon. Between the various drugs in his system, sleeping, the infernal beeping of the machines and, "The Princess Bride" - two days passed in the blink of an eye. There was something about the story, giants and sword fighting and showing good form… It called to him. (And possibly that little bit about "True Love" that had Hook thinking about things other than revenge for the first time in centuries.)
He couldn't help but think about his nurse's comment during the first day. Every girl wanted a pirate to tell her "As you wish," but maybe, this old pirate just wanted a princess that believed in him.
—-
Sometime Later in Storybrooke…
"Oy. Whatcha watching lad?" Hook asked as he breezed into Emma's apartment on a quiet Sunday afternoon. "My lady Swan." He called out to Emma with a quick bow, before turning his attention back to Henry. Emma gave him a small nod as she continued making dinner for Henry in the kitchen.
Henry spared Hook a brief glance before immediately turning back to the movie. "It's a movie called The Princess Bride. It's my mom's favorite movie."
"Ah! Most excellent. Budge over, mate. I will watch this entertainment with you then," Hook smoothly slid into the open space on the couch next to Henry. Emma raised an eyebrow at him from across the room, but he was already to into the movie to see her confused look.
It only took Emma a few minutes to realize that Hook was silently moving his lips as he followed along with the dialogue to the movie.
Emma chewed her lip thoughtfully as she eyed her son and her pirate cautiously. It had been several months since Neverland and Storybrooke was finally back to normal. She had been very carefully letting the infamous Captain Hook into the open places of her heart as the months wore on. His easy charm and grace, coupled with their mutual understanding of each other, making the transition to something more easier than she had ever thought.
However, there was no possible way that Hook could possibly know that The Princess Bride was her favorite movie before Henry just told him. There was simply no way that Hook could know what 'As you wish' really meant, right?
Right?
"Hey, Hook?" She called out carefully, plotting her next words. Her mind wondering and a small part of her heart - wishing for the answer he could give.
"Aye, love?" He replied, his eyes still flicking back to the screen for a moment before he looked over to Emma.
"Have you ever seen this movie before?" Emma could almost hear him sayOpen book, love in her head, as she asked her question as her heart pounded in her chest.
Hook smiled at her, his arms casually draped across the back of her couch, his blue eyes practically twinkling with merriment. "No. I haven't," he purposefully lied as he held her gaze.
A small grin lit up over Emma's features, she tried her best to bite her lip and reign in the emotion that surged through her. "It's a great movie," she paused, trying to stamp down her giddiness, "you should watch the rest of it. I think you'll like it."
"As you wish, Swan." Hook replied with a wink, no additional words necessary between them for now.