Chapter 2 - The Hook in the Safe

Disclaimer: I still own no part of OUAT.

After Hook had been released from the hospital, he had found himself transferred to a cell in the sheriff's office. Normally, he would have just tried to lock pick his way out of there, but as Emma had explained, it would not do any good. The Blue Fairy had managed to enchant the cell for just these purposes, so while it would not hold Gold or Cora, it could certainly withstand anything Hook could throw at it.

So instead he had concentrated on annoying the sheriff while she was in the office with him. So far he had tried every pick up line on the woman, and found out that she kept his hook in a safe, with her gun, under her desk. Hook had broken into safes before, and figured this one posed no challenge. As a result, he settled down, and waited for Swan to make a mistake.

She did so on the 4th morning of him being in lock up. After escorting him back to his cell from the bathroom, she received an urgent phone call about an attempted break in, and failed to shut the door properly. All Hook needed to do was nudge it with his full weight, and he was free. Excellent, now for the next step - to get his hook back.

Locating the safe posed no problem - it was clearly visible, and quite large. Hook sat himself on the floor, and decided to study it for a moment.

There were no visible hinges - that made sense. This world had better engineers and metal workers, so it stood to reason that he probably would be completely unable break it physically or rip the door off. That left the shiny window and the numbers below it.

Hook stared at the safe. The safe remained completely impassive.

He leaned forward slightly and pressed a number. The little glowing window lit up and stated: please enter passcode. It showed 4 stars, so Killian Jones assumed, quite correctly in fact, that the code consisted of 4 numbers that needed to be entered. He figured that there were only so many combinations, and set to work.

All was going smoothly, until he got to 0049. At this point the text on the little window changed.

"You have 5 attempts remaining"

Killian swore. Of course it would not be that easy.

He tried a random number next.

"You have 4 attempts remaining"

He tried a few more.

"You have 1 attempt remaining"

In retrospect, he knew he should just have gotten up and left. Swan would have come back, set the passcode right, and he would try the next 50 or so combinations the next time. But in his desperation to get his hook, he bashed in a 4 key code.

For a moment nothing seemed to happen and he dared to hope that he had guessed right.

Then, there was a whirling sound and the window's display changed:

"Too many incorrect attempts. Safe on lockdown. Please contact your manufacturer for reset."

Emma returned from her long morning to a very strange sight. Hook was not in his cell, and for a moment she was afraid that Gold had found him, or worse, that he had escaped and had tried to steal another car. Instead, she found him sitting under her desk, staring morosely at the safe, his remaining hand hitting the metal container with a methodical, regular thud. It only took her a moment to figure out what he had done. Sighing, she pulled the catatonic pirate captain up, and led him over to her lunch table, sat him and covered him in a throw. She then started the kettle and proceeded to make him a cup of tea.

The man in front of her looked entirely too depressed for her liking.

"Fine. I will make you a deal." The captain looked up at her, his face still completely expressionless. "You told me once that your hook is part of who you are, and it's your way to pay respects to Milah. I get that, I really do." She could see now that she had his interest and attention. "You can stay out here until the repair man comes in. Then, I'll put you back in the cell, and once I have the hook, I'll give it to you, ok?"

"You would just… give it to me? Just like that?"

Emma smirked. "Well, you would need to give it back to me before you leave your cell. We can't have you running off. But you can have it while you are in your cell."

"And why would you trust me, lass? After all, I can fit my hands between the bars. Now, just imagine what I can do to you with my appendage."

Excellent. Now he was not only responsive, but leering as well.

"I trust you." With that she stood up and pulled out her strange communication contraption. "Let's call the repairman and get you two lovers reunited, shall we?"

Hook had to admit that once again, she had bested him. As had the weird thing called technology.

AN: I think that this will be 10 or so parts long. I have a few ideas in mind for a number of those, but if someone would like to give me a prompt, please PM me, and I will see if my mad mind would like to write about it :D

Once again, thanks to worryingly innocent for proof reading this for me and maintaining composure when I burst out in fits of manic giggles next. ^_^