Chapter Two
Emma paced nervously back and forth. It had been over two hours since the staff had pulled Hook from the back of the ambulance and disappeared with him. She'd never been good at patience or waiting, so she'd resorted to pacing.
While they waited on news of Hook's condition, she and her father had made call after call, trying to find out what had happened, and who this Marcus was. Storybrooke was a small town and everyone seemed to know everyone else, but neither she nor David knew of anyone named Marcus and since no one had called her about a fight between Hook and another man, she didn't have a witness, or a location to start with. Before following the ambulance, they'd done a quick driveby of Ruby's neighborhood, but there'd been no signs of a fight.
"Will you sit for a while?" David asked tiredly. "You're making me nervous, and I don't even like the guy that much."
Emma pursed her lips, but nodded and walked back to where her father was sitting in the waiting area. She dropped down into the seat beside him and crossed her arms, drumming her fingers. Her father rested his arm across the back of her chair, giving her shoulder a pat but otherwise not quite touching her. She had no doubt he wanted to put his arm around her to comfort her. He was that kind of guy, but while she was better around her parents than she had been, she wasn't feeling it at the moment and was putting off every don't-touch-me signal she owned.
Thankfully, she only had to deal with awkwardness from one parent. David had called Mary-Margaret and let her know what was happening. She had wanted to come to the hospital, but they'd convinced her that someone had to keep Henry occupied until they knew what was going on.
This mess was exactly why Emma needed to leave this town and go back to New York. Henry didn't know about any of this, and she was beginning to think that he never should. Their life in New York had been so much simpler - work for her, school for him, a movie on the weekends, and on and on. Just… life. With the exception of one lying, scheming, flying monkey, it had been good. There were no Wicked Witches or curses, or mysteriously stabbed pirates. Once they took care of Zelena, she and Henry could go back to that normal life.
Dr. Whale finally appeared and Emma jumped back to her feet. She didn't wait for him to cross the room, but marched toward him.
"How is he?"
"Not good," Whale said, and not for the first time, Emma thought the guy had a lousy bedside manner. "I think whatever he was stabbed with had a serrated edge. It's done more damage than a normal blade, and trust me, I know about hack jobs."
"Can we do this without the creepy commentary?" Emma demanded, her temper getting shorter by the second.
"Fine," Whale replied, looking nonplussed. "We've got him patched up, but that's not the real problem."
"What is it?" David asked.
"I think he's been poisoned." The doctor paused to allow that little tidbit to sink in.
"Great." David hung his head and let out a long sigh.
For her part, Emma couldn't even manage that much. It was as if she were frozen in place. Of course, it couldn't just be a simple stab wound, because this was Storybrooke and life here was one unending tale of disaster after disaster.
"Dreamshade?" she asked, barely more than a whisper. This was Hook after all and if this was something from the old days then Neverland was a distinct possibility.
"I'm not seeing the same symptoms you described," Whale replied. Mary-Margaret had made David get checked out even after Gold had given him the permanent cure for his dreamshade poisoning. Emma hadn't blamed her either, knowing Gold.
"The flesh around the stab wound was necrotic. We've cut away the affected tissue, but if it's gotten into his blood stream, then he's in real trouble. There might be something else as well, maybe magic, but…" Whale looked from one of them to the other. "First, I need to know what the poison is and fast. We're trying some things, but if we knew we could do more."
"Can I see him?" Emma asked. She didn't question why she had a sudden overwhelming desire to be with him. She just knew it was the truth.
"Yes." Whale motioned for her to follow. "We've put him in a different area in case his attacker might show up and try to finish the job."
"I'll call Snow," David said, "and tell her what's going on." His expression, however, said he was giving her some time to herself.
Emma followed Whale, who led her to a smaller windowless room instead of to the usual wide, brightly lit area where the patients were sent. It filled Emma with a not-so-fond sense of déjà vu. Hook had been put in the same room where they'd hidden him after he'd shot Belle and been hit by a car. Once again, they were hiding him for his own safety.
"I'll give you a minute," Whale said. "But, remember, we need to know the poison."
"We'll get it," she said through clenched teeth.
Whale nodded and walked back down the corridor, leaving Emma with no choice but to enter the room.
Inside, the scene was very like the time before and yet completely different. The first time, she'd been checking on a perp who'd just shot someone and had information she needed. He'd been injured, but nothing permanent. The greater danger had been Gold finding him and killing him on the spot.
This time, he was bare from the waist up, bandages covering his side and it seemed he was attached to every machine the hospital could produce. He was pale as a ghost, with blotches of orange coloring his skin from the betadine wash, and for one nearly hysterical moment all Emma could think was that it was really going to hurt when they pulled all those sensors off his chest.
His clothing had been stuffed in a bag which had been tossed into a corner of the room. His hook had been removed, of course, but it was his other hand that caught her attention. All of his rings had been removed and for some reason that bothered her more than anything else.
Emma forced herself to step closer to the bed. One thing was exactly like last time. She needed information and she needed it now. The closer she got to him, however, the more ill he looked. He wasn't even enjoying a peaceful sleep. His muscles were pulled a little too tight, as if even unconscious, he knew how much pain he was in.
"Hook?" she tried. When there was no response, Emma looked down and grasped his ringless hand. As had happened before, she was surprised by how rough and calloused the skin was. Hook was so handsome, that she often forgot that he'd spent centuries sailing a ship, working with ropes, sail and tackle, not to mention a sword, and the work most men shared between two hands, Hook had done with one. He was no soft-skinned office worker like Walsh had pretended to be. "Hook? Can you hear me?"
As if pulling himself from the depths, Hook's eyes fluttered and then he forced them open by sheer will. "Swan?" he asked, sounding confused.
"Hook, we need to know the poison that was on the knife," she demanded without preamble. She couldn't guarantee how long he would be conscious and needed that information the most.
He frowned, his face scrunching up. "Hmm?"
"The poison. Whoever did this put poison on the blade. Do you know what it was?"
"Bloody hell," he slurred. "Should've known."
Hook tried to raise the hand she was still holding and seemed perplexed when it didn't work. He was fading and Emma leaned over the bed. "Do you know what it was, or where the weapon is so we can get it to Whale to test it?"
"Marcus," he said answered sleepily. "Have to… stop him."
"Do you know where he is?"
Hook's eyes closed and Emma wanted to scream in frustration, but suddenly the machines did that for her. She looked up to see all of the red, then back down to see that all of Hook's muscles were drawn tight as a bow string and he was jerking slightly.
Whale and a pair of nurses rushed into the room. "Leave," he ordered without ceremony. "Go find what I need."
Emma nodded and with one last look at Hook, his head thrown back as his muscles contracted with the seizure, Emma turned and marched from the room. Her father looked up in surprise as she walked back into the waiting room.
"How is he?" David asked.
"Dying. We need to know the poison now."
"I finally got a call back. One of the Dwarfs says he knows of a Lost Boy named Marcus. Says he's one of the older ones, quiet, keeps to himself."
"Well, he's getting company today," Emma said, and led the way back out of the hospital.
Emma banged on the apartment door with her fist. They were older, shabbier apartments and the door rattled with the impact. "Sherriff's Department. Open the door!"
David stood around the corner, one hand on his gun so that he could watch the rear exit to the apartment in case the guy made a run for it.
Emma pounded on the door again. "Sherriff's Department," she shouted once more, but there was still no response.
David walked closer. "There are blood drops outside the back door. He could be dead in there for all we know."
"Guess we'd better check then." She knew her smile was less than pleasant. Emma tried the handle and was unsurprised to find it was locked.
"Allow me." Her father backed up to the door, then mule kicked it open. It cracked the cheap wooden surround and the door popped open.
They both drew their guns and entered the apartment, but as soon as they'd entered, Emma knew it was empty. It was a small apartment: a living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom. She could see almost all of it from the front door. To say the apartment's furnishings were Spartan was an understatement. There were no furnishings. The living room was empty and she could see a couple of blankets on the floor in the bedroom. Nevertheless, she kept her gun drawn until they were sure.
"Looks like he had to clean up a wound in the bathroom," David said. "Hook must've got him pretty good."
Emma nodded. It made sense. Hook was never one to shy away from a fight, and he had an attached weapon built to make ugly wounds.
She carefully studied the main room and her eye was drawn to the kitchen counter. There were several purple flowers which were beginning to whither. The roots of the flower had been cut off, and then crushed in a bowl with a stick, used as a makeshift mortar and pestle to grind the plant into a paste. Emma pulled out her phone and took several pictures which she sent to Whale. Hopefully, he could identify the flower from them, and thus the poison.
"You said you caught Hook outside Ruby's place, right?"
David nodded. "He was standing in an alley, just sort of… waiting."
"And he didn't tell you anything else."
"I should've kicked the information out of him then," her father groused. "Should've known it was more serious than he was letting on." He looked around the kitchen and finally settled for a discarded plastic grocery bag. He carefully put the entire bowl containing the paste as well as the rest of the flowers into the bag. "We should take this to Whale. Maybe it will help."
"Go ahead. I'm going to talk to the people in the other apartments. I can walk back to the hospital."
"You sure?" Her father gave her an odd look and she had a feeling he was expecting her to want to check on Hook, which was true. She could admit that much. She had to figure out what had happened, however, and sitting with Hook wouldn't get that done.
While her Father headed out, Emma closed the broken door as best she could and then turned toward the closest apartment. It was a small two story row of apartments. Marcus' place was on the end, on the ground floor, so Emma just headed for the next one over.
As she raised her hand to knock, the door opened. Two mop-topped boys who looked to be about ten years old appeared, the first was fair-haired, the second was dark-headed, both with innocent expressions on their faces. Emma glanced past them to see a happily cluttered living room that looked more like a campsite than anything else. She knew some of the Lost Boys had chosen to stick together. They'd simply spent too long as a makeshift family to split up.
"Why are you looking for Marcus?" the first boy asked.
"What's he done now?" the second one added.
It was the "now" that caught her attention. "He get in trouble a lot?"
A conspiratorial look passed between the two. "Maybe." Boy Two shrugged. "Why do you want to know?"
"He got in a fight with Hook. He poisoned him." Once again a knowing look passed between them. "They have a history?" she asked.
One rolled his eyes as if to say, 'duh,' while Two hmphed and said, "You could say that."
"What happened?"
Two quickly pushed One back inside the apartment. "Not our business anymore. Ask Hook." For a moment, a look of genuine fear crossed his face before he hid it. It was an unpleasant thing to see someone so seemingly young able to hide his feelings, but it was a reminder of everything the boys had been through. The kid definitely thought Marcus was capable of retaliation if he found out someone had squealed.
"Hook's unconscious. I can't ask him."
"I'm sorry," the boy said and meant it. He glanced past her as if afraid Marcus might appear at any moment.
Emma turned her phone to the child. "Do you know this flower?" she asked. The Lost Boys knew far more about flora and fauna than she did. Their survival had depended on it.
The kid didn't brush her off as she feared he might. "It's not from Neverland," he said. He paused as if considering his words. "Just… be careful, Emma. Marcus had to get his own apartment for a reason." His eyes rose to meet hers. "I hope the Captain's okay."
"Me, too."
More soon…