I know this is close to the finale, but I just had to post it before then. The idea came to me an hour before the show! Set during season 3 finale, hope you all enjoy!
The trip had been excruciating so far. They spent most of the damn time in the forest, waiting to see Snow White or Prince Charming show up, but the two never did. Maybe they were weeks early, or maybe weeks late. But they stayed, because the only way to go home was to make sure that the two met and fell in love.
That afternoon, Emma was sitting on a log by the fire that they had made, with Hook by her side. He kicked a rock nonchalantly. Usually, it wouldn't be like this. They were both in a foul mood, because once again Emma had told him that she didn't need him, and he had insisted that she did. It hadn't been a fight, really. She was only trying to get her feet wet in a nearby river. She didn't dare take an actual swim, not with him there. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction.
He sighed beside her. "Swan..." She looked over at him, but he didn't meet her gaze, not right away. "Do-" He cleared his throat. "Do you think we'll make it back?"
Emma leaned forward on her knees and stared deeper into the fire. It wasn't late, but it was still a little chilly. "We have to."
He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, what if we don't?"
"We have to," she snapped. She saw him look away, and she turned to him. "Sorry," she whispered. He nodded in understanding, though she saw the hurt there.
She looked back to the fire. "I hate this," she told him, but he said nothing. She could tell he didn't want to upset her more. "Going to different realms, leaving Henry behind, my family. Why can't I just have a normal life? Why can't I be happy?"
She saw Hook turn to her, but she refused to look back. "You can be, love." She closed her eyes, knowing what he was going to say next. "You only have to let yourself. You certainly deserve it."
The Savior looked up at him, but only a moment, because they heard a rustling in the brush. Both of their heads snapped up at the noise, and a moment later, guards in black were trudging up their trail with their swords raised.
"Hold it!" One of them shouted.
Killian looked to her, eyes frantic, but there was nowhere to run.
In seconds, the guards had them cornered and walking down the trail toward the dirt road. The prisoners were silent as they walked, and kept looking at each other to see that the other was fine. They could barely even glance, because the guards would shove them forward.
Emma began to grow numb as they hit the road, but then she saw the two carriages. A set of guards grabbed Killian, and the others grabbed her. He began to be pulled away towards the one at the front, and it took him a moment to realize this.
No, they couldn't do this. They were so close to getting back home.
Blood was pounding in her ears, and she saw that he was struggling. He managed to get a punch in, blood erupting from the nose that received it. But in the end, he couldn't hold them off.
The Savior struggled as well. If they were going to be arrested, why couldn't they go together? But these men were holding her back. One man per carriage.
"Swan!" He yelled, desperate to be back at her side.
Emma pulled at the guards. "Hook," she said, then loudly. "Hook! Killian!" She had always pushed him away, but somehow, he never left for good. He always came back. Why did she push him?
She stumbled backwards as they tried to pin her arms across her back. Just as they hauled him up into the cart, she yelled once more. "I will find you! I will always find you!"
The cage slammed, and he pressed himself against it to see her. The forest seemed to disappear, along with the guards, and the cage. It was just the two of them.
She saw his lips move, speaking her name. She saw his eyes, the way he absorbed what she had said, and had hope in them. She meant what she said; that she would always find him. At the time, she didn't think of what it meant, that it was a family thing. Hours later, when she would hear him get tugged into the cell beside her, she would smile. Now, she became numb.
He was leaving her, not intentionally, but he would no longer be by her side. She was left alone in this damn forest, in this realm. The one person she needed in her life, ripped from her.
His hand gripped the cage, bringing her back to the present. She watched him leave, with hope still in his eyes as they stared at each other. She whispered once more as she watched him go, and then she was pulled away. "I will always find you."
