Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters or Once Upon A Time - the trolls Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz do. If I did, I'd make them canon faster than lighting.
"Everything would be way easier if you just… cooperated, Captain."
The boy who was apparently in charge leaned provocatively over Hook, smirking cruelly - and, sadly, not close enough for the pirate to headbutt him. Emma sat on the other side of the strange underground room they had been hauled to, arms and legs tied to a chair to the point that she could barely feel her limbs, in a position all too similar to Hook's.
The difference laid in that they were questioning him right then, not minding too much what Emma might have to say about anything.
They had been captured in one of their expeditions - she had followed Hook in one of his perimeter checks, asking him about the route they should follow according to the map that Pan had given her and how close he thought it would take them to some of the most dangerous spots in the island, as in the mermaids' lagoon or some beast's lair he had mentioned days before and had had her quite worried just in case they ran into some unpleasantly pissed off creature she had not been told about. They had been distracted enough - or the Lost Boys were stealthy enough, - and had not heard the bunch of rags-wearing teenagers sneaking up on them until all there were dark spots tinting her vision when something heavy hit her in the head, and the last thing she remembered was Hook's alarmed face before he himself fell after suffering her same fate.
They had both woken up in that strange storage room, a rabbit hole for all purposes, the walls made of dirt and root trees and the remains of what could have possibly passed for furniture laying around now dirty and probably rotten after years of disuse. Emma had been curious enough at her arrival to note that this may have been what in Barrie's novel was the home under the ground in which Peter and the Darling siblings used to spend their nights.
She had no clue what these twisted characters in the - she gulped - real story had to do with this place.
She would have never come up with 'a questioning room/torture cellar' though.
Hook turned his head to the side and spat in the most condescending way she had ever seen in her life, raising his eyes to their captor. "Go to hell."
The boy - Felix, she thought she had heard him being called?, - raised his eyebrows in mock surprise, and tutted at him tauntingly. "I have to confess, I wasn't expecting this. I believed that, as soon as we asked about Rumpelstinskin's whereabouts, you'd waste no time in telling us. Pan promises not to harm her or you if you do."
Emma stilled even more - as if she could, tied up as she was. As much as she wanted to get out of there, preferably in one piece and able to find Henry, she could not bear knowing they had somehow sold someone of their small crew. Even if Mr. Gold - Rumpelstinskin - whatever - had bailed on them at first after that whole leap-of-faith speech at the Jolly Roger, he had found his way back to them a while later. As soon as she had seen him, Emma had been wary alright of his intentions, but then she had realized what had had him coming back to help them find Henry all together.
He had been back with Neal in tow, who had, miraculously enough, survived Tamara's shooting and portal-jumping.
Oh, and another portal-jumping to get back to Neverland. To her and Henry.
Be as it may, these crazy punks wanted something of Rumpelstinskin. What it was, she had no idea - but either way, she was not about to tell them where he was. Not only because she did not want blood on her hands, even after everything the pawnbroker slash compulsive dealer had done to her and her family. Her main motive was that she did not want to lead their enemies to her group.
To her parents.
To Neal.
Not even to Regina, as much as the mayor might make her wish she dropped her off as a treat to some angry Neverland creature.
The problem, as she had stated earlier, was that their inquisitor seemed not to care a shit about her opinion on the matter, instead solely focusing on Hook. And even if he had been the epitome of helpful since they had gotten to that godforsaken island, she was not entirely sure he would be able to see past this chance to get rid of his enemy, the rest of his allies be damned or not.
Trying to meet the pirate's eyes in the not-so-well-lit room, she pleaded to him. "Hook, please…"
Her heart clenched in her chest when he made sure not to look over at her. Instead, he craned his neck to better focus his gaze in Felix's. "I said. Go. To. Hell."
Felix pulled back from him, waving that weird cane thing he carried around everywhere lazily and pacing around them, now leaving nothing to obstruct her vision of the pirate. His face was bruised, lip swollen where they had slapped him and a thin line of blood trickled from his cheek to his neck. She met her eyes for the first time since they had been tied up and the beating up scheduled part of the evening by the Lost Boys had started, and she felt irrationally calmer - crazy, that, considering the situation, - when she saw the never wavering resolution in them.
Alas, Felix didn't seem to mind.
"So I stand corrected - you're in no mood to share." He came to stand directly before Emma, his back to her, so she could not see Hook once more. She wrung her hands against the ropes, oddly unsettled and fearing what this guy might have in mind to do next. "Well, I guess this calls for desperate measures."
All she knew was that at one moment, she was staring at his back; next her cheek and lip burned with hot searing pain and he was right in front of her, grinning cruelly down at her and the hand that had struck her still outstretched in front of him. There was a ringing in her ears and for a moment she did not know for the love of everything that was holy where she was or what she was doing there, her mouth parted in a grimace at the absurdity of the situation.
Until the sound of struggling and a growl that rose to nearly a scream brought her back to the present, - the abandoned lair, the bonds around her wrists, the pain. Hook.
"If you touch a hair on her head again, I will make you wish you were never born."
She had to give it to that Felix guy - he had balls. He didn't even blink at the dark, dangerous threat - he just sneered back at her, not bothering to give any attention to her companion. "Now, mother: What will it be?"
She swallowed back a scowl, and lazily turned her head to the side, spitting some of the blood in her mouth, the taste bitter in her tongue. "Go to hell."
The lost boy didn't look surprised at her response - or lack of one, that was. She was not sure if that meant Pan had told them something about their encounter when he had given her that freaking map - that 'fire' he claimed she had. He shrugged unapologetically, clicking his tongue. "You taught her well, Hook, I must say. She even sounds like you." She snapped her head up to lock eyes with Hook, surprised. There was no time to dwell in the fact that he was, indeed, right - he was coming to stand in front of her again, the wooden cane now swishing through the air in her direction and inching closer to her face, and she was sure the creepy fuck was nearly moaning at the sheer terror in her eyes at the implication of what he wanted to do next. "Pity to harm something so pretty."
Emma closed her eyes, trying hard not to grimace - not knowing when the strike was coming made the pain easier to bear.
Sort of. Or so she wished, anyway.
It never came, though.
There was a loud crash and an snarled "Stay away from her," and how in hell had he even gotten his arms free and managed to get the freaking chair crashing on one of the boys standing behind him she would never know, but he looked murderous and wild and she had no idea what to do. In a matter of seconds the gathered group that had been silent and overall looking kind of bored while Felix lead the whole procedure had him on the ground, the dirt sticking to the skin of his face and neck as they struggled to keep him pinned down. Emma felt like the wind had been knocked out of her lungs, unable to look away of the pirate fighting the lost boys out of his back while being completely unarmed. Felix, once again, turned from her and span on his feet to stare down at him, cocking his head to the side, as if he were giving thought to what to do with him. "You really have learned nothing in all these years, pirate. Once a fool, always a fool." He gave Emma a cold smile over his shoulder then, and she could not suppress a shiver at the malice in them. Jackass. "And for a woman at that."
Emma must have missed the signal, because, right at once, the boys that got a hold of Hook started simultaneously to beat him up - punches and kicks delivered with one sole purpose: hurt him like hell.
Something snapped inside of her, and she tried to free herself, her wrists burning against the ropes in her attempts to no avail to get to Hook and help him. She jumped pathetically, the chair to which she was tied moving minimally, but as soon as she did another one of them - where were they even coming from?, - came to grip it and make her stop. In her nearly feral temper, she jerked her head to bite at his arm, but he pulled away before she could get him. He kept a grip on the back side of her seat just in case, where she could not reach him, but that did not deter her from keeping her struggling and fighting to break free. "No! No! Leave him alone, please!"
She hadn't even realized she had been crying until Felix's hand appeared at her side, stroking her tears away. She jerked away from his touch with a growl, teeth bared just in case he dared to touch her again, but she needn't have worried. He turned to his sidekicks, lifting his arm commandingly and, at once, they stopped, leaving Hook to drop back to the ground with a grunt that made Emma wince. "Boys - leave them for the night. I think the message got through."
She wasn't even paying attention to him, though, her eyes locked to Hook's lying form. He was not moving. He was not moving.
God, why was he not moving.
Time stretched as she willed him to wake up, to fight, to survive. Wasn't that what he did best?
She almost sobbed in relief when she saw his chest rising and falling.
Felix's voice came unpleasantly close to her ear next, and she felt her hands being freed. Clever bastards. They'd have time enough to leave without the possibility of her attacking them as she got completely rid of the rest of her binds.
She went completely still at his parting words, though.
"You'd better say goodbye to your pirate, mother. I cannot assure you he'll make it through tomorrow."
The shutting door behind him and his posse was barely heard over the frustrated growls she kept spouting while she untied the ropes from her ankles, legs and waist, and she almost jumped to Hook's side, cradling him against her chest and passing a hand over the hair sticking to his forehead.
She knew she must look at her worst, the most pathetic and defenseless and weak and everything that Emma Swan despised, lying there, crying and hugging herself closer to a man beaten nearly to death, but she was sure of one thing.
She was not willing to let the pirate out of her arms anytime soon.
just a little drabble thing for the lovely Janine aka hookedemma :) hope you liked it dear!
xoxo - nini