"Hmmm seems someone's been dipping into Papa's stash again." Alice giggled as if not at all repulsed by the faint traces of vomit in his (Robin's) mouth. Hook couldn't answer with all the tangled emotions he was feeling both his own and the stronger lingering ones from the woman whose body he was currently trapped in until this spell wears off. The silence and soft pants to catch his breath seem to be answer enough. "Only question though love." his little girl asks their breath mingling as Alice rests her forehead against Hook's stealing another kiss against Robin's- lips. "Why are you kissing differently?"
Something was most certainly different. And while Alice had missed her girlfriend horribly, and really all she wants is to go back to camp and spend the rest of the day being held by her girlfriend, she was determined to find out what it was.
The pirate could only give a weak "Well…" before he could tell her about what had occurred the night before his own voice cuts into their conversation.
"Alice?!"
Hook could tell just by the strain in her voice that Robin was standing too close to their hiding place, that the pain of his cursed heart was already taking a high toll. Alice must hear it too seeing as she's hastily untangling herself from her girlfriend and bolts to a safer point farther back along the path tugging Hook along behind her.
"Alice." Robin calls again catching a flash of her as she runs away somehow managing to push past the pain enough to gasp out the name, not that she thinks her fleeing girlfriend can possibly hear her.
"Hi, Papa." Alice answers also out of breath as she peeks around the side of a young pine. She looks back, lingering fear in her eyes when Robin drops her hand but lets out a grateful breath when she notices her girlfriend walking around the other side of her new hiding place toward her father.
"Deep breaths lass." Hook coaches dropping his voice so Alice couldn't hear, not that she could given how far away she'd run them. His starfish truly was incredibly quick. "Sword belt nice touch." Robin tries to joke her hand pressed against her chest keeping her head down to avoid showing how much pain she was in. "Might have to steal that when we're back to normal." She warns earning a low chuckle from the pirate. "Not if Alice does first." He laughs helping the archer stand making Robin definitely consider adding one to her wardrobe permanently given the blush Hook is sporting when he's telling her.
"I'll wait here love just get Papa back to camp where he'll be safe please." Alice suggests talking louder so they hear her.
"How about we all go back to camp instead. Henry and Ella are staying for a few more days and I know Regina has a few things she's been saving for you." Hook counters focusing more on Robin's uneven breathing than what he was saying.
For her part, Alice chooses not to comment on the point that unlike the other times Robin has talking about her, Regina was always Aunt Regina or Aunt Gina after they've shared a drink or two of Regina's extra special apple cider.
Something was definitely different, but right now all Alice could think about was ways to make her Papa look less green as she trailed behind the other two heading back to camp.
"What the hell have you done to my daughter?"
Alice winced at the venom in Zelena's tone making her slow up even more. Something had to have happened while she was away seeing as the last time she'd visited camp her Papa and Zelena had seemed to be on the road to becoming friends. Besides Robin was perfectly fine.
"Z please." Regina says rushing to her Papa's other side following his eyes back over his shoulder toward Alice as if he was worried, she wasn't still following them. Of course, she was still following them. She'd missed them like crazy these last few weeks. And unlike the first time this happened she was determined to stay until her Papa was better.
Alice breaks off, heading toward the fire pit while the others guide her Papa to his tent. Yeah, she's definitely going to have to talk her archer into wearing that sword belt more often.
Alice hastily schools her face away from the hopefully not drooling yet love-struck woman checking out her girlfriend to something more appropriate to the guilt she feels at having been the cause of triggering a debilitating curse on his heart when her Papa's eyes meet hers.
There's something different about his gaze. Something more like where she's staring at….
"Alice hey."
Ella cradling a sleeping Lucy against her shoulder lowers herself down beside the anxiously waiting blonde as Robin stands after getting her stubborn Papa to drink at least a few sips of water letting Zelena take over treating him while Robin herself heads over to speak to Regina and Henry with a determined kind of swagger in her stride that Alice hadn't really noticed before.
"Hey, Ella." Alice answers automatically trying to be polite while also keeping track of her suddenly commanding girlfriend out of her peripheral vision.
When had her Papa given Robin so much authority in his camp? And more importantly, why didn't it happen sooner?
Regardless of their personal relationship, Alice could think of no better person to be her Papa's second in command than Robin with Regina running a close second and Henry third.
"So how was your latest adventure with the Dark One?" Ella probes rocking a now fussy Lucy back to sleep. That brought Alice out of her Robin watching and back to the conversation she'd been neglecting since Ella had sat down.
"Well…." the adventuress starts in
Neither woman had noticed how late it was getting, both too engrossed in Alice's recounting to bother when they were rather rudely interrupted by Henry's call of: "Hey Cap I finally found those hawthorn berries you wanted." As the prince came striding back into camp with a proud grin on his lips as he stops beside Alice and Ella to press a kiss against his wife's head and get a glimpse of the baby now in Alice's arms. Jabbering away in baby talk to a very attentive blonde.
"I could kiss you right now Mills." Hook sighs as he crossed to the royal's side taking the satchel he was holding while waving off Henry's joking come back of "Come on man. Robin is my cousin that's just weird." As he looks over what Henry had managed to collect before the rapidly approaching nightfall impeded his hunt.
"How is she?"
Its Ella that asks knowing the question would be on the tip of her husband's tongue as the other three had moved off a few paces away from the fireside to talk.
"Resting, still the curse really takes the winds out of your sails so sleeping a lot is normal." Hook answers passing off the bag to Regina so she could start brewing the tea for when Robin wakes up. "She'll be alright Henry." He hastily clarifies seeing the fear in the royal's eyes. "On my honor, as Captain, I swear to you, she will be alright. it's just she's not as used to dealing with the recoil pain as I am. Alice and I know our limits when it comes to how close we can come but Robin was too lost in the moment to remember whose body she was in when she realized Alice had come back, so she got too close."
"Talk about mind and body not being in sync." Henry sighs running a hand over the back of his head as he and Ella digest what Hook is telling them.
The pirate captain nods sadly "That's one thing I had hoped no one but myself would ever have to deal with." He confesses "I can take the pain any time if it means being close to her."
Alice looks up from making funny faces to get Lucy to giggle meeting Robin's eyes as if her archer had called her name. She's on her feet in seconds crossing over to them to pass Lucy over to her father but her eyes never waver from Robin's. "What's wrong."
Hook shakes his head not realizing until Alice had come over that he'd started crying. "S….he's fine. Right as rain come morning. I promise." He answers already seeing the anxiety in Alice's eyes as they move back toward his tent. His hand closes around Alice's wrist not wanting to repeat their first meeting after she'd escaped. His little girl coming back to him a beautiful full-grown woman only to run out of his life just as quickly as she'd reappeared when once again Gothel got between them with her cruel curse.
"Seems we won't need to wait that long Cap." Ella corrects gesturing back to the collection of tents.
Robin and Zelena had just exited Hook's tent the later guiding her daughter over to the fireside with Regina not far behind them before breaking off toward the direction of the tent they'd designated to preserving the camp's rations.
"We need to talk Alice." Hook says seeing the growing nerves in her daughter's eyes at the still shaky stride of his body "Okay." Alice nodes grateful for the distraction from her guilt at letting her Papa get so close while Robin and the other two share a small node between them when they thought Alice wasn't paying attention.
Alice feels her Papa's eyes following them as Robin takes her hand lancing the fingers of her left hand in Alice's right rather than favoring her right hand like Alice's is used to. Not that she's really complaining with the feel of her girlfriend's strong archery calloused fingers against her skin even if it is just holding her hand.
She keeps her eyes on her Papa's as Robin guides her over toward the trees away from camp. The feeling comes back again as soon as their eyes meet. Something is off about the gaze its deeper than when she normally looks into those eyes. Even from her memories of her time in the tower.
Yet before Robin can do more than take a steadying breath when they stop Alice's eyes dropping from her favorite shade of blue so she wouldn't trip on the uneven ground in the darkness of that corner of camp she speaks quicker now looking into her favorite shade of green. "When was the last time you've eaten?"
The question puzzles the pirate for a few seconds as he tries to work out if she was talking to him or Robin at the moment until the archer's stomach grumbles like an angered bear between them making Alice giggle "Still different." She complains yet that doesn't stop her from pressing yet another softer flash of a kiss against Robin's lips. The winds shift blowing from camp rather than toward it this time making not only Robin's but Alice's stomach rumble at the tantalizing smell of rabbit stew on the air.
"Come on you."
That was more like the Starfish he remembered from her tower days as Alice's hand closes around his own tugging him up toward the smell of food. "Let's go before Henry eats it all."
"Ok, but we really have to talk Starfish." Hook points out as Alice's hand slides into his making him marvel yet again at having both his hands even if he was only using Robin's for the time being
"And we will Papa but how about we talk after dinner." Alice agrees swinging their joined hands between them as she skipped toward the fire.
"Sounds like a proper trade love." Hook agrees falling into step with his daughter until he realized what she's said.
Alice's giggling laughter at the rather comically wide-eyed look he was giving her seems louder in the darkness making the others they'd left sitting around the fire look over at them.
"Everything alright over there?" Robin calls out starting to get to her feet only to be stopped by her mother's hand on her arm.
Alice gives her father a sly wink her eyes seeming to glow in mischief in the limited light of another of the camp's fire cites as she turned toward them clearing her throat to call back. "We're fine Nobin now sit down like a good girl and eat the rest of your dinner."
"Don't call me that Tower Girl." her father's voice answers her yet somehow her girlfriend's words didn't have the same playful venom as when she normally rebuffed her. "And get over here before Henry inhales the rest of this." she adds in warning earning a grumbled 'I'm hungry alright.' from her cousin as father and daughter rejoined the group beside the fire.
