I was really excited by the response to my little prologue for this story idea. Here's the second part; hope to have the third and final one up tomorrow. Thanks again for reading and providing feedback. It really does help and prompt me to write even more.
"Cold as Stone"
By: TutorGirlml
ii.
Emma stood frozen to her spot until David came squealing up in his truck, peeling in behind where she had parked the cruiser. She had not moved or hardly breathed since Killian walked away. He had disappeared down the street again when she was unable to speak around the panic and hurt rising in her and clawing up her throat. Seemingly oblivious to her distress, or even unconcerned, which was so unlike him it made the trauma worse, he had headed off, bidding her farewell and turning his back without another glance.
"Emma!" David's voice was taut and intense as he ran up to her, seeing the expression on her face and immediately pulling her into his arms. He could see that she was not in physical danger, but that something had struck her hard; whatever had happened, the damage was already done. "What is it?! Did you find Hook?"
The dam against her emotions broke at his words, and Emma leaned into her father's strength, crying on his shoulder as she had never been able to do growing up. He shushed her hiccupping sobs, cradled the back of her head in his hand and swayed them both from side to side soothingly. Gradually, Emma brought herself back under control and pulled away, wiping the tears from her face and still sniffling, but aware once more that they were in the middle of the street and she was falling apart. This letting people in allowed her to feel so much more than she used to, but at that moment it was coming back to bite her, and she wasn't sure what to do with the empty, brittle ache in her chest and the shocked disbelief at what had just happened.
Her dad wanted answers, and Emma could tell it was taking every bit of his restraint not to press her for details. Finally, she drew enough of a steadying breath to nod and try to fill him in. "He was here," she confirmed, then faltered, biting her lip hard enough to draw blood in order not to cry again. She had done enough of that already to last her another decade, "but it – it wasn't really him."
She shook her head, knowing that couldn't make much sense, but not sure how else to put what she had experienced into words. Something had happened to her pirate, and she wasn't sure if they could right the wrong. She only knew she had to think of something. Unless…unless he really had put up with enough, gotten tired of waiting on her, of taking it slow, reassuring her at every turn, and …he truly intended to walk away –just as she had always feared he would.
David couldn't actually know her thoughts, but it seemed he read his daughter's mood just then, grasping Emma's arm to brace her and interrupt her torturous train of thought. "Emma, honey, you aren't making sense. Just take me back through what happened. What do you mean, he was here, but it wasn't him?"
Managing at last to shake her head clear and focus, Emma told herself that it was something more than her pirate changing his mind. Killian would not simply forget the feelings he had professed for her and leave. That gave her enough momentum to snap back to business. Taking a moment to square her shoulders and meet David's eye, she reiterated, "It was him…but he didn't seem to know me at all. There was no feeling there…no hint that he recognized me or felt what we are to each other."
David reached out and took her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze, but didn't immediately try to coddle or brightly reassure her – for which Emma was grateful. This was not okay, and no amount of well-meant but empty words would change that.
"He was just so cold," Emma continued, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper and almost carrying away on the frigid breeze. "It was like he had completely forgotten he loves me, and I was nobody special to him at all." She pursed her lips and looked away, partially scanning the near distance for anything amiss, and partly just to avoid her father's knowing gaze. She didn't want to make him feel any guiltier than he already did for how alone in the world she had been, how many times she had been hurt and betrayed, and just how easy it was for her to believe a loved one could turn his back and abandon her.
The Prince's steady voice pulled her back and helped brace her. "Okay, here's what we'll do. I'm going to call Regina. We'll see if she has any knowledge of a curse that makes one forget or alters personality. I know we've discussed this before, but I still can't help thinking this is all related to whoever or whatever is causing the drastic shift in weather. We know it isn't Elsa – she's really coming along on her control with Regina tutoring her – but that doesn't mean some other newcomer hasn't snuck in while we were distracted."
Emma gave him a curt nod of agreement before adding wryly, "Better you than me. Ever since the whole fiasco with Robin and Marian, Regina's barely civil to me, even when Henry's present. Otherwise, she pretty much pretends I don't exist."
Her dad gave her a grim, half-smile, hand on her shoulder as he held her gaze. "It will work out, Emma. Somehow, it will work out."
She rolled her eyes, but managed to smirk back before retorting, "You and Mom are both ridiculously hopeful. You know that, right?"
"Comes with who we are."
She snorts inelegantly, but nods.
"In all seriousness," Charming said, sobering again, and using the 'dad' voice that let her know how in earnest he was. "I once had to hear Snow tell me she didn't love me, that I meant nothing to her, and watch her turn her back on me. I almost gave up on us, until I was reminded how priceless what we share truly is and made the decision to keep fighting for True Love. I'll admit I had my doubts about Hook at first – he is a pirate – but I can tell you now, I haven't seen someone as in love with a woman as he is with you in a long time. Don't let yourself doubt that. There is more going on here than we know."
His words did their job, though Emma found herself trying to blink back tears again. "Okay," she whispered, "I'll try to borrow a little of your faith."
She was heading back towards the cruiser awaiting what David would find out from his call to Regina before she went out on patrol and tried to figure where she might find Killian, when Ruby came bustling out of the diner and made a beeline for her.
"Didn't I see Hook out here with you a minute ago?" she asked breathlessly, an artfully sculpted brow arched in confusion. "He practically left a standing order for one of these anytime he comes by," she added by way of explanation and pressed a warm to-go cup into Emma's hand.
"He – he was here," Emma stated obviously, a bit dumbfounded by Ruby's usual quick exuberance. "I'm not sure where he went though. …What is this?"
"Hot Caramel Apple Cider," Ruby supplied with a fond grin tilting her red lips. "He was in here a week or so ago, getting coffee for you, David, and himself at the station. He overheard Henry and Grace ordering them, and he was curious, so he tried one. Then I think he ended up having two more. Said it was the best drink he'd encountered since his first taste of rum. Pretty adorable really."
Emma returned Ruby's playful grin, in spite of all the other thoughts whirling in her mind. "Yup," she added with a gleam of mischief fleeting through her otherwise tense expression. "The dread pirate Captain Hook has quite a sweet tooth." Emma's heart panged at the sense of familiarity she had come to feel with her pirate, and Ruby leaned forward; either the she-wolf's sixth sense had allowed her to pick up on something, or she had caught some trace of how Emma's face must have fallen at wondering if their True Love connection was gone.
David had just hung up the phone saying, "Okay, I'll tell her," and started back toward them, when the ache in Emma's chest suddenly intensified tenfold, doubling her over. Crying out at the abrupt, slicing pain, she clutched at her heart.
Ruby stepped closer to support her when she stumbled, and David to her side, crying out in alarm, but Emma could hardly tell what was going on around her. Her vision narrowed and her surroundings faded out, to the point that her only focus was the throbbing sensation in her chest. She almost went to her knees, gasping for breath, then the sensation ebbed a bit and she opened her eyes to see David and Ruby surrounding her worriedly.
She was about to take their offered hands and let them pull her to her feet when she was nearly crushed by the memory that invaded her thoughts. In Henry's book, she had read the story of Snow White taking the poisoned apple from Regina and eating it willingly to save Charming's life. More than that though, she remembered how miles away and unaware of what was happening, in the dungeon cell of Regina's prison, Charming had felt the life leave his True Love and fallen to the cold, hard floor, clutching his chest as if he himself had been the one cursed.
Panic replaced the hurt and indecision Emma had felt previously as she grabbed her father's forearms in a desperate grip and choked out her fears. If she and Killian were the same, if they were True Loves as well, something horrible had just happened. No matter what he felt or remembered; he had just been struck a fatal blow. She had to get to him, no matter what happened after.
~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0
Killian Jones came back to himself as if from some hypnotic daze. Glancing around, he realized that he had no idea where he was or how he had reached his current location. If he didn't know better, he would have though he was in some sort of gigantic snow fort, so vast he could not even see the far wall. He only knew that behind him rose a pristine, flawless partition of freezing white. He shivered on reflex, before realizing that he was almost beyond sensation. He knew he must be cold; he was only wearing his open-necked black shirt and leather vest and duster. Yet, though common sense would insist he should be freezing, he honestly felt nothing at all.
It was troubling enough that his natural curiosity was overridden by the immediate desire to get out and get back to town. His thoughts were fuzzy and sluggish at best, but he knew there were people there who would surely explain to him what was going on; in fact, yes, there was one in particular… A flash of golden tresses and crackling green eyes darted through his mind and escaped again before it could solidify or he could put a name to the vision, but he knew. His lass…his love…he needed to get back to her…
Striding forward, he was nearly thrown back when he smacked into a solid barrier of ice. It had been completely transparent and invisible until he touched it, and Killian reached out, disbelieving, until his fingers slid along the glassy face of the obstruction. "What bloody sorcery is this?!" he swore to himself, pushing against the wall only to find that it would not budge in the slightest. He took two steps back, then bodily threw himself against the blockade, but it did not good. Not even a crack appeared. Growing desperate, the pirate began to pace his crystal prison, seeking another way out and growing more angry and frantic by the moment. She was worried about him; he could tell. He needed to reach her, whoever she was, and he needed to get out of this white fortress. He did not know how he had ended up here in the first place, but it was unnatural and he wanted no more of it.
He swung his hook forward, hoping to stab the metal tip in deep enough to shatter the sheet of ice, or at least put a crack in the surface, but it merely gouged in and stuck. Killian was struggling to free his metal appendage when an eerie, trilling laugh blew past him on the wind. Looking left and right, he still saw no one, but a strange, disembodied female voice followed the laughter. "My my," the ghostly speech lilted, "aren't you a bit anxious to leave? You're such a handsome one…I think I might keep you a bit longer."
Killian's face twisted in anger and he growled, freeing his hook at last and brandishing it in front of him, though he had no way of knowing where the mysterious being was speaking from. "Show yourself, demon," he challenged. "I'm not a toy or plaything. Let me out of your magic cave."
The strangely light, frighteningly cheery laughter sounded again, tinkling in his ears like icicles against the surface of a frozen lake. "Oh no, I think not," the female tone assured him. "It's been much too long since I've had visitors. We're going to have bit more fun."
Steeling himself for whatever attack must be coming, Killian still saw no visible sign of his captor. He had just relaxed slightly, thinking perhaps she had left him alone again to brood on his fate, when a sudden chill ran down his spine, and ice shards and snow began to whirl in a miniature storm all around him, striking at every bit of his exposed skin. Looking down, he was aghast to see a large, deadly-looking splinter of solid ice impossibly stabbing right through leather, skin and bone into his heart. A stabbing, paralyzing pain invaded his chest as the wicked spike disappeared into his chest cavity before his eyes. Numbness set in after the pain, until a second, throbbing ache pulsed through his being, this one distant, almost out of body, but no less debilitating.
His vision began to darken; suddenly the haze that had surrounded him thawed. No longer numb, he was so bitterly cold that he knew he must be dying. He fell against the wall, going helplessly motionless as ice seemed to overtake his body inch by horrible inch, encasing him and freezing over his skin, stealing breath and warmth. One last thought burst through before he went mercifully unaware – one last shot of warmth. Emma, his mind screamed, reminding him who he had needed to get back to, who the second stroke of pain must have belonged to…his True Love. Her name is Emma.
But then there was nothing.