This is intended to be a series of how Captain Hook becomes Killian Jones. (Bi)weekly updates until March, which span from 2x05 to 3x11. Also, I will endeavor to copy as little as the actual lines from the show, in hoping that all of you know it well enough without me needing to add it in. This series intends to focus on the thoughts behind the words and actions of the characters, with presentday!Killian and Emma in mind. This will be strictly canon.

The Doctor (2x05)

He felt the rough bark digging into his back uncomfortably, and tried to control his simmering anger. He had waited 6 bloody hours under the slowly rotting corpses, only to have his bluff ruined not even 20 minutes after he had been pulled out from the wreckage. It was driving him mad that the supposed savior had read him so easily. He wondered if she'd like his hook buried in her neck as retribution.

And now she was speaking again, after the Princess squad (and fuck if he was ever going to live down being apprehended and tied to a tree by Snow White and her daughter while Mulan helped and Princess Aurora, whose grudging trust he'd worked so hard to gain, watched in stony silence).

"One last chance," the blonde woman said, and Hook stamped down the urge run his sword through her annoying face and her 'secret' at being able to tell when someone was lying to her, as if she intended to seduce his secrets out by her close proximity. Damn her to the seven hells, he thought viciously, channeling the anger into earnest desperation as best as he could.

"I already told you, I'm just a blacksmith," he said.

It wasn't until he heard the rumbling roars from the distance after she whistled and threatened his existence that he realized that this woman was no mere princess; she was going to make good on her promise, the lingering anger of being thoroughly sick with Cora's genocide was clearly making her ruthless enough to leave him here to die.

Real panic bubbled up within him at that, his hands trying but failing to break loose because Mulan had wrapped the rope like coil; numerous times and tight around the tree. He stamped down the panic, because even if the blonde witch was going to leave him to die, he knew that Aurora would at the very least protest to such barbarism.

"You can't just leave me here like this," he called out, watching them walk away, making sure to catch Aurora's eyes. True to form, she stopped to question his authenticity, but the blonde woman was leading the pack and she called him out on it. Again.

The roar was louder this time, and shoving the panic far away, he gave in to the anger that seemed to always simmer on the surface of his skin.

"Good for you," he said, glaring at the ground, tightening his fist in annoyance "you bested me." He raised his gaze to see the blonde had stopped, could only imagine the smirk of self -satisfaction on her vexatious face. She did not find his pun funny, and walked up to him, demanding his identity. He considered replying with a scathing remark on how she could find out when he buried his hook into her throat, but felt the desire to reveal himself, truly, because she was worthy of it, somehow. Had seen right through him without much effort, and as considerably aggravating as it was, it was also indubitably impressive.

With a sigh, he answered, "Killian Jones." It had been a long time since he'd call himself that, a long time since he'd even referred to himself as Killian in his head, and at least three centuries since anyone else had, either.

"But most people have taken to call me by my more colorful moniker; Hook."

He saw the flash of recognition on Snow's face as she repeated his name, and wondered if Regina had told her, all those years ago. He dared her to check his satchel, but his attention was drawn back to the blonde, who was looking at him with both disbelief and recognition.

"As in Captain Hook?"

"Ah, so you've heard of me," he said smugly, a feeling of pride surging through him despite the fact that he was still tied to a fucking tree with ogres sniffing their location on the way.

He ground his teeth together, eyeing the blonde and considering his options. There weren't many, and she seemed to realize they were running out of time, telling him so. As if he didn't know, gods above, he never hit a woman (unless absolutely necessary, it was bad form, and it was a lesson of his mother's he couldn't bear to part with) but he was so tempted for the third, maybe fourth time, to hit her on the head with the back of his hook.

On other hand…

He went for honesty. If anything, he figured it would appeal to the goody-goody types Cora was so often bitching about (there really wasn't a more appropriate term for some of her rants) that made them all the easier to manipulate. Which was precisely why he felt the panic he'd so suavely shut down before bubble up in spades when blondie and Mulan still walked away from him. His panic wasn't faked when he cried out "WAIT!"

It was in that moment that he made a choice. It didn't really matter who got him to Storybrooke, as long as he got there, and if push came to shove, he could always claim he was being a double agent for whichever side got there first. And all things else, the Princess brigade was a hell of a lot better to look at than Cora's perpetually snotty face and her sickly aura of dark magic that made Hook's skin crawl in the most unflattering way possible. It vexed him, though he couldn't help be a tad impressed with blondie, because her blade was once again pointed at his neck, and he wanted to scream at her that they had no time before the ogres found them.

"You tell me one thing, and whatever you say, I better believe it," she said, looking as if he didn't, she was prepared to run the hell out of there and leave him to die. "Why does Captain Hook want to go to Storybrooke?"

So he told her the truth, summoning with ease the burning desire for revenge that had fueled him and kept him sane in the insanity that had been Neverland. "To exact revenge on the man that took my hand. Rumplestiltskin."

The roars were getting closer, and the blonde woman swung her dagger high, and he glared because what more of the truth did she want, but when she brought down the blade, it hit the rope he was bound to. She gave him a look, one that promised retribution if he made her regret her decision, and turned to Mulan. "Untie him, quick!"

Hook waited, stock still as to preserve his dignity as the two woman untied the rope, finding it easier than hacking through its thickness. Snow White was murmuring low to them to hasten their pace, and he could see the top of the ogre's head peeking out not 200 yards from the tree line, and he reminded himself that he had been in far, far much worse situations than this one in the last 300 years.

When he felt the bonds loosen, he wasted no time to step out of them as the blonde, Emma, (because Snow had used her name freely now and he committed it to memory so he could curse her properly) let out a strangled yell for them to "Run!"

He tried not to feel too offended that Mulan's sword was pointed at his back when they cleared the danger and trekked through the forest, or that they'd kept his hands bound together. He had expected the distrust given how Emma and Snow kept looking at him with open distaste, but it still rankled that not even the supposed 'princesses of purity, goodness, noble birth and exploitable trust' (Cora's words, in one of her colorful rants) could not afford him a smidgeon of trust or goodwill. Which was why he felt the smug satisfaction of lording information over them as they came in view of the beanstalk, and then, as Emma moved past him and climbed over a fallen log, legs extending almost languidly in her tight trousers, promptly decided that these four would make far, far better mutual alliances than enemies.

He only had one cuff, and he hoped as hell it would be her he'd climb with.