A/N: This story started with an idea for one big, feelsy exchange in the jail. I haven't even gotten to that yet. Now the other characters are horning in. I think I've got things under control... haha. MY GOD reviews are AWESOME. Please point out any confusion I may cause with POV or loooong sentences.
Hook awoke when the sunlight pierced through the cell's one small window and hit him squarely in the eye. He hadn't slept very well, but then he hadn't expected to. After all, he was on land. He blinked repeatedly, and looked around to see who seemed to be gnawing, loudly. It was David - Prince Charming. He watched the man that sired Emma gracelessly eat pistachios at the deputy's desk. He couldn't see the resemblance.
"Oi, I guess I'll just be moving along, then?" Hook sat up and shook the morning out of his eyes. Words were never wasted between David and himself.
"Sorry, Hook. Emma says you have to stay."
Hook looked up from rubbing his forehead.
"What's that?"
"She told me you had to stay." David continued to read the paper, flicking pistachio shells across the desk.
"Did she happen to mention why?
"No."
Hook scanned his memory for a clue. He had not been drinking last night. His incarceration had been purely preventative. Had Gold spontaneously decided to parade up and down Main Street, or was Emma holding him there for some other reason?
"So what were Emma's words, exactly?"
Charming looked up warningly. He personally had no patience for Hook.
"If you'd like you can borrow my phone and ask her yourself." David held up his cell phone, teeth clenched. Hook wasn't interested, and flopped himself back down on his cot. David was relieved, not in the mood to tutor the pirate on the use of his smart phone, or to hear the bilge known as Hook blatantly come-on to Emma in his presence.
Emma's first defense of the pirate, her insistence on keeping him safe had been mystifying to David. He tolerated it at Snow's request, trusting her reasoning that Emma must see something in Hook that others didn't. Maybe Emma was seeing a bit of good, or maybe she just recognized a familiar darkness. Whatever the case, Snow firmly believed that they had to support their daughter. Emma was an adult and at the same time she was their abandoned child. The least they could do was tolerate her inexplicable soft spot for Captain Hook.
The two very different men sat in silence for most of the morning. David took a few phone calls before lunch, then ordered food for the pirate and himself.
At 3:15 a friendly face popped in to the sheriff's office. Emma's son, Henry trotted up to his grandfather happily, then let out a small yelp when he saw Hook in the cell.
"Hey, Killian. There you are! You weren't at the usual spot today."
For the first time in his long history of incarceration, Hook looked fleetingly guilty. David glowered at him, openly.
"I didn't know you two had met." David employed all of his restraint to keep his expression friendly and upbeat in front of Henry.
"He sits up by the school and watches boats at lunchtime." Henry shared this insider information with gusto. "When I saw his hook I HAD to talk to him. He's Captain Hook, you know! Now he tells me pirate stories, but I have to bring him candy and stuff or he won't do it."
Henry was gushing. Hook felt a bit like a man listening to a reading of his own diary, but he kept his exterior flawlessly cocky.
"You have to be firm with kids. They can't get something for nothing. Remind me, what was I going to tell you about next?"
"Mermaids!"
"And for me?"
"Rolos. If mom and Snow didn't eat them all."
"Alright, then." David walked over and put his arm around Henry with a forced chuckle. "Speaking of sweets, how about you and me go get some ice cream sundaes at Granny's?"
Henry jumped at the offer, and before Hook knew it they were both out the door, leaving him alone with his thoughts. He doubted anything good would come from Emma learning that he had befriended Henry. In his defense, Henry had befriended him. But he couldn't deny that he had spotted the family resemblance immediately. After a short chat Hook could see that Henry had all of the keen perception of his mother, accompanied by naive wisdom instead of mysterious emotional baggage. Personally, his money was on Henry for most dangerous human lie detector in Storybrooke.
Around 4:30 Hook was stirred by Emma's soft footsteps. She walked wordlessly up to the cell door. Her expression was iridescent, flashing anger, hurt and confusion in one look.
"You've been talking to Henry? You've been meeting him at his school and taking part of his lunches?" The questions were facts. It was her feelings on the issue that were in question. Hook stood to face her, leaving only 8 inches and some bars between them.
"Henry has been talking to me. And I only take his candy, which seems to be in no short supply. I'm doing everyone a favor."
"A favor?" Emma's eyes were wide with questioning. "Well now he thinks very highly of you."
"Perhaps it's hereditary." The corner of Hook's mouth twitched with a grin. Emma jutted her chin forward, defiantly, but did offer a retort.
The air between them was fully charged, wanting for a single spark. It was Emma's turn, but she had lost her momentum trying to decide between a clever dig or a vehement reprimand for his involvement with Henry. But Hook hadn't done anything wrong, as far as Henry was concerned. The boy had eagerly regaled David with the pirate's tales, all of which were stunningly PG rated.
Emma grimaced, and turned to leave.
"Where are you going, Swan? And why I am I still here?"
"I don't know, Hook. Why are you still here?" There was a light pleading in Emma's voice that granted the question a deep, philosophical subtext.
"Because I'm bloody locked in!"
Emma stopped, letting her shoulders slump momentarily. She straightened, turned, and sauntered back towards him. Within a foot of his face once again, she gingerly lifted his hook off the horizontal bar that encircled his cell, pulling it over to the aged lock, then turning it sideways. Hook's arm followed willingly. Then, without breaking eye contact, Emma inserted the sharpened tip of his appendage into the keyhole, springing the door open with a few quick motions. With that, she released his hook and made her way back towards the exit.
Hook looked at the open door with a bit of dismay. It had been as easy as he had imagined to spring the lock. He felt a twinge of regret for a fortnight of fitful land-bound slumbers, but he had enjoyed the company.
Emma had turned away once more with a hint of flare, and woven her way towards door. Hook watched her hips sway, and smiled. Emma rested her hand on the door, pausing, and caught both his eye line and expression. She rolled her eyes. It did not make the task of explaining why she'd kept Hook locked up all day any easier.
"Belle came out of the hospital today. She's moved into an apartment in town. I want you to leave her alone." Emma reported the news to Hook with one foot out the door, but then she hesitated.
"And, Hook - there's a chance she'll get her memories back. I need to know what you're going to do if that happens. I can't let you hurt her again. I don't want you to do anything rash if it looks like Gold's going to get his happy ending."
Emma watched Hook process this new information as he slowly wound his scarf around his muscular neck. She hoped that he understood the gravity of his freedom that night. She should have kept him locked up - every fiber of her being wanted him back in his cage, where she could keep him safe. She couldn't explain the root of this need, she only knew that when Hook roamed free it gave her the same stitch in her chest that she got when Henry went to spend a night with Regina. It was infuriating, and it was wearing her down. Henry was her son, and the new emotions that had surged into her life when he found her could be considered progress. Who was Hook? And why did it feel as if one of her major internal organs was unaccounted for any time she couldn't pinpoint his whereabouts?
"Perhaps you weren't listening closely enough to Henry's stories, darling. My name is Killian."
Emma blinked, then completed her exit. Hook was alone in the darkened office, left to his own devices. He needed to move. He needed to think. He needed some fresh, sea air. He walked over to Emma's desk and rummaged around until he found what he knew to be the front door's spare key. He pocketed the spare, then made his way outside, smiling as he heard the lock click shut behind him.
