A/N: This occurs right after the group finds Tinkerbell who agrees to help them.
"Tink?! You up there?!"
Hook had been sent on behalf of the group to gather Tinkerbell for their meeting. They needed to discuss the plan to get inside Pan's hideout and they needed the fairy to shed some light on the best way to accomplish that. She had excused herself a while ago, to change clothes. He tried especially hard not to picture that image in his mind. She was just a friend now. Hook was halfway up the ladder when he heard her yell back at him.
"No! I mean yes. Don't come up!" her voice sounded a bit panicked, but it was already too late. By the time she finished her sentence he was at the top.
"Come now Tink, don't tell me you're suddenly shy about..."
She tried to cover up quickly but it was too late, he had already seen it. Her exposed skin and the marks that were on it. Not just a few simple bruises, no that wouldn't have surprised him at all. Life in Neverland was rough. If you weren't willing to get a little scratched up every now and then, you'd never survive here. However, this was something else entirely. On her back were thick jagged scars, some of them still red, looking rather new. Oddly shaped cuts decorated her upper arms and the bruises unmistakably had come from hands. She had one bandage wrapped around the lower part of her abdomen. Then it hit him. What she really went up here to do. She wasn't changing clothes; she was changing bandages. He stepped into the hut and stood there, uncertain of how to react to what he clearly was not supposed to have seen. He didn't mean to stare at her, but he simply couldn't take his eyes off the damage she had suffered.
Tinkerbell fumbled with her top and rapidly put it over her head. A little too rapidly she soon realised as the fabric scraped along her injuries mercilessly. She grit her teeth and rolled down the rest of her tunic with a gentler hand. Just as the last bit of bare skin disappeared beneath it, Hook noticed something small at the base of her spine. There were distinctly shaped letters. Two of them.
Initials.
The sight of it made the normally composed pirate take a step back. All of a sudden he felt sick. His stomach was twisting into tight knots. He did not just see what he thought he saw. Every last bit of guilt he had carried around for years and buried, somewhere deep inside his blackened heart, came flooding right back. After a long awkward silence he managed to croak out, "I'm sorry, love."
"Yeah you could've at least knocked first," she replied, completely ignoring the fact that they both knew exactly what he was actually apologizing for.
A long time ago, Hook had had the chance to take Tinkerbell off the island with him. She had tried to talk him out of his plans to get even with the Dark One many times of course, but after spending centuries looking for a way to defeat him, having finally found it, he simply couldn't let it go. Despite their differences on the subject, they had grown quite close over the years. So when he finally made the deal with Pan to leave Neverland he had demanded Tinkerbell leave with him. Pan had had no problems parting with the ex-fairy, however, he had named a price for her. And a steep one it had been. One he simply couldn't, or perhaps... wouldn't pay.
He had considered taking the easy way out and leaving without saying goodbye to Tinkerbell. It would avoid having to explain why she couldn't come with him, but he realised that would be the cowardly thing to do and Hook, while he found himself to be many things, he was not a coward. He had faced his fierce little companion and had told her of Pan's request and how he couldn't possibly honor it. What made it all the more painful now was that she had pretended to be ok with it. She wanted to be a good friend and not make him feel bad about leaving her behind.
"Tink..."
"Don't," she spoke firmly, fearing that if he went on she'd not be able to hold it together.
"I don't need your sympathies Hook. I did just fine without them for the last few decades," she sat down carefully in her hammock. She was putting up her walls. Creating as much distance between them as possible by acting cold. He sighed and without asking he lowered himself into the hammock next to her. Tinkerbell stared straight ahead of her, refusing to look him in the eyes.
"So you haven't missed me then?" he tried to lighten the mood with a self-assured grin.
"Nope, not at all," she lied. "In fact, haven't thought about you for a second since you left."
A smile crept up on Hook's face. He knew she wasn't telling the truth and he knew she wanted him to know it, otherwise she'd have made herself sound far more convincing. She was just too damn proud to admit it.
"I've missed you," he simply replied. Disarmed by his sincerity, the former fairy turned her head to the side where he was sitting. Even though neither spoke up, a lot was said in the look they shared. After a moment of comfortable silence Hook felt sufficiently at ease to bring up the subject of her injuries again. He needed to know exactly which one of those obnoxious savages had attacked Tinkerbell so brutally.
"Who was it Tink?" he inquired, barely able to contain the anger in his voice.
"What does it matter now?"
"Well I'd like to return the favour," he raised his hook in the air with a triumphant look on his face.
"I can handle those boys. I'm not the only one on this island bearing scars you know," she shot him a significant look.
"Oh I have no doubt about that. What about Pan?"
She fell silent at that and let her eyes wander back to the floor, a dark frown covered her otherwise friendly features. That had been a low blow but he knew he was right. She was tough, however, even someone as resilient as her had a breaking point and Pan was particularly skilled at finding that point.
Hook glanced in her direction and as if seeing it for the first time ever his eyes lingered on the kerchief around her neck. Studying it, he noticed something was off. He reached for it and yanked it off her to reveal a nasty-looking set of fingerprints. Tinkerbell gasped. Before she knew what was happening, the green material had fallen down on the ground. Her hand instantly shot up to cover her neck. She stood up to retrieve it and shot a death glare at Hook while tying it securely back in place.
"Why did you do that? Why can't you just leave it alone?!" she looked furious, though her voice betrayed the emotion within her.
"What is he doing to you? More importantly, why are you letting him do it?!" Hook shouted at her, his own rage getting the best of him. Tink's eyes widened before narrowing them murderously; she looked ready to slash his throat like she had threatened to do all those years ago.
"Let him?" her voice was extremely shaky. She closed the gap between them swiftly and grabbed his coat with both hands and whispered dangerously, "I didn't let him do anything," she stared deep into his eyes, making sure he understood exactly what she was saying. Hook got the message alright. He stood up as well, her tiny hands slowly dropping back to her sides.
"Aye. That was out of line... I apologize."
A lump formed in the back of her throat, rendering her speechless. Why did he have to be so damn nice? Anger she could deal with, but not kindness. Kindness was worse. It made the walls she so thoroughly had built up around herself crumble down like a house of cards.
He moved to hug her, but she firmly took a step back, finger pointed at him. "No! Don't touch me." Her words may have been fierce but her appearance was anything but. He stayed in his spot and instead extended his hand out to her.
"Come here," he said softly. When she made no attempt to move in his direction he added, "That's an order, fairy."
That was all it took for the thin layer of ice on her soul to melt. She tried to suppress the grin that was forming on her lips, but it had always been hard to stay mad at him for too long. Besides, it wasn't him she was truly mad at anyway.
"Ex-fairy," she corrected him, "and I don't take orders from a pirate."
Hook's eyebrow raised in amusement as he caught the mischievous glint in her eyes. "Always have to have the last word don't you?" This time they both smiled.
Tinkerbell didn't need any words, all she needed was her friend's embrace after all these years of being apart. So she did what she had wanted to do the minute she had laid eyes on him earlier that day. She threw herself in his arms. Hook almost stumbled back from the impact. Tinkerbell hissed when he put his arms around her. Even though he didn't want to hurt her, he felt reluctant to let go, so instead he rested his arms as gently as he could against her back with his hand between her shoulder blades. They stood like that for a while. Complete stillness surrounding them.
Additional A/N: I'm considering writing a second part, in which Hook confronts Peter, for those who might be interested in that.