A/N: So here it is, the second chapter! Sorry it took so incredibly long to upload it. I had it written a very long while ago, I just never found the motivation to proof-read it. Honestly? I still haven't. I'll do that sometime next week and then update it, I just didn't wanna leave you hanging any longer. I actually had the idea for this story ever since I was a little child. Back then I had no idea about ouat, I didn't even know what fanfiction was! But Captain Swan gave me the inspiration to really get working on it, so that's what I'll be doing now. I'm gonna stop rambling now and let you read!

Disclaimer: If I owned them, well...heaven knows what I'd do with them then ;)

When I finally awoke my head was spinning. I tried to sit up, but that only made me sick, so I hunched back down to the floor again. Instead of freaking out I decided to logically analyse my surroundings to orient myself. Robert had not been a good father, I never wanted or expected him to be one, but he had been a good teacher and the one thing he taught me was mental strength and intelligent analysis. It was one of the most important things as engineer. So I took three deep breaths and tried to remember last night.

It all came rushing back at me with a force that left my already hurting head thumping from exhaustion. The bad dream. The evil King who had banged me over the head. Had it really all been a dream? I knew for certain I wasn't in Robert's cabin anymore. Funny. After all these years, I still didn't manage to call that hut "home". But that wasn't the point.

I realised where my sickness was coming from. If I closed my eyes and breathed and concentrated I could feel the slight motion underneath my body. A soft swaying from left to right, like a baby in a cradle. Feeling my surroundings carefully with my hand I touched wood. A wooden floor. I was lying on a creaking wooden floor. The rich scent of meat and fruit and bread flavours filled my nose, making my head spin again. Cautiously I tried to sit up again, much slower this time, trying to avoid the inevitable head rush. But I fought against it. I needed to know where I was. A sharp light bit into my eyes, making my squint and recoil from the heat, however I found I could not move my hands to cover my face. They had been tied together. Tasting my sandpaper-dry mouth I realised I had also been gagged. With another bang I could finally make out where I was. It was the tiny little bull's eye from which the sunlight seeped into the room that triggered it. I was on a ship. I was in the storage room of a ship. And I had to get out of here, fast.

It took a bit of a struggle, but I managed to loop my tied hands from behind my back over my feet and into the front. I fought to take off one of my clogs and threw it with all the force I could summon against the round window, but it didn't break. With an angry grunt I crawled stubbornly towards the shoe to pick it up and throw it again. It broke through the glass and fell right into the deep blue sea. I had lost my clog, but I gained what I wanted – a glass shard. Carefully I picked it up with two fingers, as if it was a poisonous snake, and swiftly cut through the rope tying my hands together, then proceeded to take out the knot of the cloth in my mouth. I ran my tongue over my itching dry lips once to get the moisture back and then stood up. I lost balance against the rocking motions of the wild ocean, but I managed to regain strength through sheer determination. I had to find out whose ship I was on. And I had to get off it.

"Well, look who's awake!" said a voice from the top of the stairs. It was the same rough voice from last night's dream; only it wasn't so rough anymore, now that it was not clouded with effort and anger. Dammit, I hadn't seen him coming, I should have been more careful!

"Who are you?" I hissed, taking one cautious step back, away from the shard of light shining in through the broken glass, creating rainbows on the bags and containers of food.

The man at the stairs answered me simply by stepping into the beam of light from which I had just escaped. The breath hitched in my throat as I tried to gasp and found I couldn't make a sound at my shock.

The man had short-cropped black hair and an unruly beard along his jaw. He was wearing leather from head to toe and a fitting brown jacket above the black embroidered vest, hanging down to his ankles. But it wasn't his appearance that shocked me. It was the gleam on his left hand…or rather where his left hand should be. In place of a palm and five fingers shone a pointy silver hook.

"Hook," I hissed. I had heard about this man. The most dreaded, most disgusting, vulgar pirate of them all. Bile rose in my throat at the thought that I was captured on some bloody pirate's ship.

"Clever girl. Got those cuffs removed faster than I'd expected you to. Come here, love, let's get them back on," he smirked.

"Don't touch me! Wretched pirate!" I spat at him and stepped further backwards, only to find I reached a wall behind me.

He let out a dark chuckle and moved towards me, picking up the rope I had just cut on the way. He threw one ugly look at me and threw his arms around me, as if he was trying to embrace me. I tried to throw in a good punch, but he caught my wrists before I could move and tied them back together. The rough ropes burned against my already irritated skin, but I would not show this man my pain.

All of a sudden my stomach lurched. "Juliette," I whispered.

"What did you say, darling?"

"Juliette! My sister! What have you done with my sister?" I shouted.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean," he breathed.

I gave up struggling, accepting his grip was too strong on me. "Where is my sister?" I asked once more, calmly, but dangerously angry.

"We took no other. I suppose she was killed with the rest of them."

That did it. That one sentence. My knees buckled, but I fought to keep myself upright. That hateful monster would not see my pain. Yet it was hard to keep away. This was not simply a sister's mourning. In the years that we have spent with grumpy, drunken Robert, I had to become more than plainly a sister to Juliette. I had to guide her, see her grow up, teach her everything she needed to know. I became a mother. The fact that she was gone – that I would never see her again – twisted my heart with the full-blown strength of a mother's mourning. And it was all Hook's fault. First the pirates take my father and now my daughter as well. Heat boiled up inside of me, I could feel cooking blood rushing to my face and bile rose again as the hate grew like a bushfire inside of me. A tiny spark at first, then spreading, unstoppable flames that burned and seared my entire body from the inside out.

I spat in his face.

"Oh, so you're not so clever after all, dearie. Guess I shall have to gag you again as well," he said as he wiped his face with the end of his sleeve, that wretched smirk curling on his lips again.

"What good will that do?" I snapped back.

"Oh, simply for the fun of it," he groweled, his voice like gravel once more. The voice that I had heard the night before. Or had it been the night before? How long had I been knocked out cold?

"Fun? Whose fun?" I growled back, just as cold and dangerous. It was hard to tell in this moment who was the hunted and who the hunter.

Hook smirked and stepped even closer to him. "Mine" he breathed into my face. The bile rose into my mouth for a third time, together with an unhealthy dose of new burning, raging hate and even a portion of fear. Having him so close to me, having his breath on my skin made my stomach convulse in painful spasms. Not only because this wretched man was almost touching me, but because, well, quite frankly…he stank.

I turned my face away from him and hissed "you disgust me!"

"Ha! We'll see about that, love."

"Do NOT call me that, wretched pirate!" I spat the word, all the hate dripping from my mouth and onto his dirty skin, dissolving it, burning it…

"Now come. I believe my crew would like to be introduced to you, princess."

"Princess? Why do you call me princess, pirate?" I looked up at him, trying to remain strong and angry, but knowing that some of my confusion was leaking through my eyes.

"Well, you are one after all, aren't you?"

I recoiled from him. "How do you know that? What else do you know about me?" My voice rose to an incredibly high volume. "Tell me, pirate!"

Instead of replying to my shouting he continued his thread of thought at his own volume. "Took us long enough to find you. Believe me, that peasant disguise was incredibly good. Knew we were coming, huh?"

I couldn't reply, that was how shocked and confused I was. This revolting creature knew all about my past. How long had he been stalking me? How long had he been threatening my town, my kingdom? Guilt washed over me, stronger than ever. How could I have abandoned them? And what did he mean `I knew he was coming´? Was I supposed to know he was coming? What did he want with me? Why didn't he take Juliette? Oh my poor, poor, innocent, sweet little Juliette. All these questions were oozing through my skull, but I wouldn't dare to show weakness and curiosity in front of this loathsome monster.

"Now come." His patience was obviously growing smaller. He grabbed me roughly by my arm, his grip too strong to struggle out of. He dragged me up the wooden stairs and through to the deck, where I could hear the excited buzzing of fifteen maybe twenty voices, a mix between baritone and bass. Twenty disgusting, repulsing, vile rattlesnakes and I was the mouse caught in the middle of their circle. As much as I tried to shake out of his firm hand, Hook was too sturdy and he held on to me with an uncomforting ease. If it came fist to fist, I knew I would lose. But if I were to get a hold of a sword or a knife…

My train of thought ended abruptly, as did the waterfall of conversation. We had reached the deck and I was more than relieved to feel the cool, salty sea breeze blow against me, playing with my hair, stroking my dress. I felt like I could finally breathe again. But even this relief was taken away from me quickly as I saw what was before me. I did a quick count. 17. 17 disgusting pirates scrubbing the deck or manning the sails or having a laugh with each other and a glass of beer in their hands. This time I could barely swallow the bile back down again.

"Men, this here is…well, what is your name, dearie?"

I stared at him coldly, keeping my mouth shut.

"Well, I suppose that doesn't matter much anyway. We know who you are, don't we, brothers? The eldest princess. King David's first daughter. Snow White's first daughter."

How did he know me? I shivered, scared to my bone. I tried to pull myself together, disappointed that I had let Hook feel my fear.

"We've found her!" Hook announced boomingly. The reply was a twistedly cheerful "hooray" from the crew. "After years of searching and planning, we've finally found the one we were looking for. The one who will lead us to our much desired and much deserved treasure." Another great cheer. "But – and now let me make this clear – we will treat her with our utmost respect and approach her with our very best manners, or you shall all feel my hook in your chest!" The monster held up his left arm, showing the hook that gleamed there threateningly. The crew stared up at him silently, blinking dumbfounded. If the sight wasn't so repulsive it might have been slightly amusing, seeing how struck these creatures were by this announcement.

Hook turned to face me. I lowered my eyes, but he put his hook on my chin and lifted my face to his, breathing onto my lips once more. It was meant for me, but it was loud enough for the others to hear. "However, I cannot guarantee you that our best manners meet your expectations of best manners. We are, after all, pirates, my dear," he laughed gruesomely and the crew cheered once more. It was all I could do not to throw up onto him right then and there.

"Now get back to work!" Captain Hook shouted, raising his voice above the wind. He turned to me once more. "As soon as you get those ropes off your hands, you may start by scrubbing the deck. You've earned a duly punishment. I don't take it nicely when people try to destroy my ship," he whispered into my ear, referring to the broken bulls-eye, making my hair stand up where his reeking breath singed my jaw.

"You're making me work?" I exclaimed.

"Afraid of getting your hands dirty?" There was that ugly smirk again.

"No!" And it was true. I wasn't afraid of getting my hands dirty, I had done that enough with Robert.

"Ah, afraid of the dirty hands of my men, then." He chuckled again.

"Absolutely not." And that was true also. I wasn't afraid of these scumbags. I hated them. Hated them with every fibre, every cell in my body. I was getting sick at the thought of coming close to another one of those monsters, Captain Hook's grip on me was plenty of vulgarity for today, thank you very much.

"Tell you what, I'll put you under that guard of my Baelfire here. He has proven me to be one of the most loyal, well-mannered and self-controlled men in my crew. Baelfire! Take care of her." And with that the abhorrent beast disappeared. Vanished in the blink of an eye. Like magic.

A man trotted towards the helm, towards where I was now standing alone. His head was bowed to the floor, as if he was in shame. I had seen a lot, but never had I seen such a look on a pirate's face. And I soon realised why.

My heart stopped, my breath wouldn't reach my lungs anymore. I barely had enough strength to stutter out one last word… "Neal?"