When he first saw it, it was merely a trinket, one of many. It had drawn his eye because of who he was, a shiny doubloon sitting amongst its brethren. He made the off-hand comment while looking to see if there was anything else he could pocket before getting the compass. Only when she berated him did he put them down, but not before pocketing a few of the doubloons for his own use in to his hip pouch. It lingered in the back of his mind as a pointless fact which one it was he had been looking at when she yelled at him.
The trinket was quickly forgotten about in the heat of the moment when she betrayed him and left him to rot on t he top of that beanstalk with not but a giant for company. Yes the giant, Anton was his name, had been good company and Killian found that the stories he had heard were ghastly changed but then again it is always the victors who write the tales. When the time had come for him to be let go, Killian nodded his thanks, stashed a few more doubloons and headed down the stalk only to run into Cora once more.
His journey with the blonde lass quickly took a turn down a road he didn't expect. Their journey suddenly began to revolve around a dried up bean, the one he had been given upon his departure from the giant's home. Not that he told the lass that, he told her it was a trinket and symbol much like her. He said it was a treasure to represent that adventure of his conquest, his mind suddenly bringing the few doubloons in his pocket to his mind's eye. But with his last comment, he left with Cora to go to this land without Magic for him to seek his revenge. After stopping at his ship to pick up a few things, Killian put the trinkets he had managed to take from the lair away in the hold, but not before slipping a specific doubloon into a hidden pocket on the inside of his leather jacket.
Once at the lake, his attention is once again drawn in multiple directions before being knocked out entirely. When he awakes the lass and her mother are gone with the compass, but checking his pockets he finds that he still has the bean as well as the hidden doubloon, even though he doesn't understand why it is so important to him to still have it. Killian just tells himself that it is to remind him not to trust the blonde lass, even though he sees himself in her.
As Hook and Cora make their way to Storybrooke via the magic bean he still had, his time once again become fueled and dedicated to just his revenge and solely his revenge. He stole the precious item that the Crocodile needed to leave the town and then used some strange modern item the crocodile's lass had to then take the lass away from him. It was then he was reunited with the blonde sheriff after this attempt. He had awakened chained, yet again, to a bed and he quickly realized that all of his belongings had been removed from him. He let off the air that he was only concerned about where his hook was, using it as an opening to flirt and annoy the sheriff but oddly enough, after she had left and he was alone with his thoughts Killian couldn't help but wonder if the single gold doubloon was still in the depths of his coat.
Soon after that, Killian managed to find his way to a mysterious other town that the crocodile had run off to with the sheriff. He stabbed the crocodile and the next thing he knew was he was being awakened by a stranger who was untying him but then stuffed him in the back of the car, but not before telling him that they were going to Storybrooke.
The next few days were a blur to Killian as he was forced to hop from one alliance to another all in the hopes of getting help in his revenge on the crocodile. He only stopped once to quickly and momentarily mourn the death of his partner of a long time when he learned that Cora had been disposed of. He did not actually miss her or wish her alive, he just mourned the death as of that of an acquaintance, having survived 28 years frozen in time with her and then their partnership in getting to Storybrooke. But then he was back to the whirlwind of jumping and fighting and suddenly his life was revolving around a crystal trigger that he had learned would kill him and rid him of his existence and a magic bean that would take him back to the land he hailed from.
After aligning himself with the good guys, and a punch to the face by the not so charming prince, Killian found himself fighting to get a magic bean, and then pulling a switch on the blonde lass and her family with the bean. He found it odd that suddenly his and hers lives were revolving around this bean when once it had revolved around a compass but Killian ran, intent on saving his own skin with the bean in the pouch he had switched at the diner. But then before he could leave, his thoughts were pulled suddenly to the doubloon hidden in his coat and the adventure he had shared with the blonde woman that had been beginning to pull at his heart strings. It was then that Killian knew he needed to return and help everyone escape. But then he soon had to use the exact bean he had been mulling over to take him to the one place he never wanted to set foot in again, Neverland.
And his adventure in Neverland soon led to quite a brutal one, both emotionally and physically for him. He found himself opening up to the lass, found himself realizing that he was wanting to give up revenge and take a chance at finding hope with her. He found himself becoming Killian Jones again, losing the pirate inside of him. Occasionally his mind lingered back to the gold doubloon hidden in his jacket and during some contemplation on their journey back to Storybrooke Killian wondered if the reason he had kept the gold coin was for it to be a reminder of just her, the lass that he hoped to win the heart of.
Then suddenly his and everyone else's worlds were turned upside down again when they realized there was another curse coming and they would all have to say good bye to their blonde savior and her son. Killian considered giving her the doubloon as a keepsake but found himself wanting to hold onto selfishly, reasoning that she wouldn't know what to do with it with her memories altered. So he kept it and his promise to his love. Every day he thought of her and every day he held that one special doubloon to his lips and then his heart as he thought about her, always wondering. Wondering about what ifs and what could have-beens, but mostly wondering if she was happy.
When the opportunity arose for the chance of Killian going and retrieving his love and her lad, he jumped to it and found himself on another journey. Rumpelstiltskin enchanted the doubloon much like he had enchanted other objects before so that he could find her. It was then that Killian found himself following a gold coin that held so much history in a mysterious city called New York until it led him to her home.
As he tried to convince her of old memories before going for the potion Regina had given him, Killian first tried using the doubloon, but with her face not altering at all at the sight of the coin he resorted to the potion.
Weeks maybe even months later after the fighting and curses and all things chaos had died down and the town finally was given a chance to breathe, Emma questioned him about the doubloon. He just waved it off, saying it was a trinket and a silly item to maybe connect with him being a pirate as she now affectionately called him. Emma could sense that he wasn't sharing the real tale but knew he would tell her if and when it was important. Killian didn't know why but he just didn't want to tell her just yet.
What he didn't want to tell her was what he had planned with the doubloon. For it was his love's birthday approaching soon and he knew the perfect gift. So Killian found himself going to the prince and dwarves asking for assistance in foraging a necklace out of the doubloon. But what he needed help with was carving out a swan shaped hole in the middle of the coin. For Killian knew it was time for him to relinquish ownership of the enchanted and beloved doubloon over to her.
And on her birthday at a private meal for the two of them, Killian handed her a small box wrapped in gold paper with a red bow wrapped meticulously around it. Opening it and peering at the contents, Emma's eyes immediately began to water at the sight. It was that same doubloon she remembered Killian trying to show her back in New York all those months ago. Looking up at him, Emma's eyes asked the real question, she asked for the story and the significance. And so Killian told her that this doubloon was from a certain beanstalk and a certain giant's lair and was the one thing he had kept from their first adventure together, the rest of the coins gone and traded away for current currency and other things. Killian told her of all the times he held it and thought of her during their year apart, he told her of the crocodile's enchanting of it allowing him to find her, he told her of how no matter where they were in all their journeys and adventures together he always had that one doubloon hidden away close to his person in the long coat. And then finally he told her that he had had it enchanted once again, for it to be like a compass. How he had used it once to find her and now she can use it to find him, should they ever find themselves separated. The only thing left was for Killian to help Emma put it on, though it had enough chain that once on the doubloon sat right above her heart where it would end up staying until the end of time.
