He keeps his promise of thinking of Emma every day, and not because an honorable man doesn't break his promises. Everywhere he looks he's reminded of her: her parents, Lake Nostos, the beanstalk, the tree where she tied him up, even the sun which shines bright every day and paints the scenery gold like her hair. He knows that it will never cease to be incredibly painful, but with guidance from mainly Charming and Tink he starts to learn to focus more and more on all the good things his love for his Swan brought into his life instead of just the darkness creeping in the void her absence left.

During the day he's right by everyone's side rebuilding the kingdom and socializing – something quite new for him, but which he's definitely enjoying; at night, he spends hours doing something he hasn't even thought of in centuries: he draws. Her, the castle, her, everyone laughing during a feast, her, a map of the kingdom, her, even blueprints of the old buildings he inspects with Charming, her, her, her. He knows his talents can be a great asset to the group's collective task at hand and so he shows them his work, but keeps Emma's portraits to himself. It's only a few weeks later, seeing how Snow's face fell after both Blue and Victor confirm she's pregnant to a room that also has her husband, the dwarves and Regina, that he decides to give her one as a gift to try and lift her spirits. He excuses himself to go fetch an image of Snow, Charming, Emma and Henry smiling in their usual booth at Granny's, and a few moments later manages to catch the woman alone in a corridor.

"Your Highness, if you could spare a moment…"

"Of course", she replies with a somber expression. "What is it, Hook?"

"I have something for you which I think will be appreciated", he says with a shy smile while handing her the piece of parchment.

Upon seeing the image, the woman's expression changes completely. She's overcome with emotion, and it takes her a few seconds to even be able to speak.

"Oh, Hook! This is beautiful! Did you actually draw this?"

"Aye. I was gonna keep these to myself, but I couldn't bear to see you so miserable for hearing news I knew to be your heart's deepest desire. Hopefully this is to you a reminder of all the good Emma brought into your life, into all of our lives, as it is to me. Nobody will think of this child in your belly as a replacement, nor that you think of he or she as such."

"Thank you so much", says a teary-eyed Snow already throwing her arms around him for a tight embrace, "and I am so sorry. For all the times that I've doubted you, for thinking that you might have wanted to harm us even after you came back for us, for her, and took us to a place you had spent so many years trying to escape just to save my grandson, a boy you barely even knew…and here you are being so kind to me. Thank you."

"Well, to be fair, Your Highness, I did give you reason to mistrust me at first."

"True, but you've earned my trust many times over since then and I was just too stuck up on my own notions of love and loyalty to see what was right in front of my eyes", and once again her expression and tone of voice changed, this time to a rather serious and introspective one: "…which also happened to be the reason my daughter distanced herself from me when we were in Neverland. I see it now. So I am sorry."

Feeling a lump forming in his throat, he nods and turns away to leave. He hasn't taken two steps when she thinks of something and calls him again.

"Hey…when you gave me the drawing you said you intended to keep these to yourself. Plural." When he doesn't say anything, but sighs and turns back to face Emma Swan's mother looking like he's mentally kicking himself for letting that slip, she realizes he doesn't feel quite ready to share, but she just has to ask. "Please show me."

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Snow White isn't quite prepared for what she sees when Captain Hook lets her inside his quarters and shows her drawers full of images of her daughter: Emma sitting alone in a booth in Granny's diner with a cup of hot cocoa; Emma climbing the beanstalk; Emma sitting by the docks; Emma drinking from a coconut in Neverland. In a matter of seconds she's crying again, but there's a wide smile behind her tears. She looks from her beloved daughter to Hoo- no, to Killian Jones, and back to her daughter, not doing anything else for what seems to him like an eternity. Then, all of a sudden, she walks closer to him, puts her right hand on his cheek and says simply "Thank you". As she turns away to leave, she looks over her shoulder at him, still smiling. "And I know you're much closer to my husband than you are to me, but I'd love it if you would drop all the ceremony. I'm just Snow."

He sits on his bed, looks at the beautiful drawings he's made of the woman he loves, and instead of crying he smiles like he hasn't since well before the curse hit.