A/N Thank you so much for all the reviews and follows. I hope you like this update (keep in mind that it might take Emma time to forgive Killian for this - don't worry I won't torture too much. There's still the romantic tension and synchronisation in their personalities there).
Chapter 3: A Change in the Wind
From across the ship, Mary Margaret glared murderously at the captain. Of course she wanted to wipe the floor with him but she knew, despite everything, Emma would deal with this like an adult. Mary Margaret interceding would only endanger their group and her daughter wouldn't want that, so she returned to the banisters, stifling the urge to knock the leather-clad pirate overboard with heavy weights attached.
Everyone returned to their duties and Emma stood stock still, shocked at the fact that Hook had just slapped her. She didn't know why she was so astonished, he was a pirate after all, but it hurt more coming from him and she couldn't even comprehend why. Grimes and Talice backhanding her had just been fuel to her determination to remain equal in the crewmen's eyes. That and Emma found the urge to piss them off irresistible.
It also surprised her because, while she held a special spiteful loathing for Hook's treatment of her and her friends, she had never thought of him as a violent person, especially vicious enough to enact violence on a woman. Lightly touching her cheek, she jutted out her jaw in resentment.
"Captain Hook." He growled, correcting her earlier deliverance of his moniker.
Hook stormed off, spinning on his heel and returning to the helm. Grimes was once again smirking at Emma, but not in the infuriatingly attractive way Hook often did. Emma turned and immediately went back to work, refusing to speak to anyone.
The warm morning sun hit her cheek and spread across her face and she just knew she had woken late. But how could that be?
For a blissful moment, Emma thought she might be back in Storybrooke and that the whole trip aboard the Jolly Roger was a just a bad and very vivid dream. She half-expected to hear Henry's feet slapping the wooden floorboards as he ran to wake her or the sounds of breakfast being served by Mary Margaret in the kitchen. Opening her eyes to the timber roof, Emma recalled her true location with a feeling of disappointment. As she sat up, she looked to where the light was trickling through the wooden panels in the roof and became confused.
Every morning, the crew was awoken just after sunrise and forced to work until sundown. As she peered up from her hammock, Emma could see that the room was deserted and the sounds of physical labour were evident above her. Confused and still somewhat bleary, Emma rolled out of her hammock, pulling off her jacket in the process, and turned to make her sleeping quarters more presentable. Just as she was finishing up, she heard the door to the room creak softly open and closed.
"Mary Margaret, why didn't you wake me up?" Emma asked lightly, turning to face who she had assumed was her kind mother. Rather than the pixie-haired beauty, Grimes stood in front of the door, locking it just as she faced him.
"What are you doing here?" Emma asked, already twitchy in his presence.
The slimy man licked his lips and smiled, yellow teeth bared.
"Why didn't I wake up with the rest of the crew?" Emma asked again, subconsciously backing away from Grimes.
"Bein' first mate while Smee's gone has its privileges. For one, I deliver cap'ns orders when he doesn't want to leave his room and th'smorning I decided that he just so happened to want you left alone so he could talk to you later…" Grimes started to advance towards Emma slowly.
Emma stopped moving backwards and stood her ground. She would not let this sad excuse for a man try to intimidate her. She was starting to get the feeling that what he had in mind for this morning was not something she would ever enjoy.
"I'm going to give you five seconds to get out of my room before I tear your legs off and make you eat them."
Grimes just chuckled darkly, continuing his advance. "Now why would I do tha'?" he asked and Emma saw light reflect off something he held in his hand. He had a knife. In a split second he rushed her, taking advantage of the shock she harboured at seeing a weapon in his hand.
Knowing her first reaction, Grimes pressed a dirty hand to her mouth, before pushing her up against the wall. His weight gave him an advantage but Emma was two inches taller and much lither. Biting on his hand, she used her arms to grab the hand that held the knife. Grappling with one of his hands, he used his remaining hand to try and rip her shirt.
A tear formed and one of her singlet straps fell loose. Emma's temper soared and adrenaline began to kick in. Using her now free leg, Emma kneed Grimes in the crotch. He didn't move but simply grunted and pressed on with attempting to grab her shirt and hold the knife.
Furious, Emma threw all her weight at him and tackled him to the floor. Immediately rolling off, she took a fighting stance. Grimes stood, knife at the ready.
"So this is how you land a woman?" Emma spat, aggravating the panting mess in front of her. He struck out with the knife and she dodged. He did it twice more before Emma kicked him in the stomach. He let out a grunt but swiped her with his unarmed hand, landing a blow on her side. It was twenty minutes of this before the tables turned.
Grimes had just attempted to cut her but before he could move again, Emma kicked the knife from his hand – glad that she hadn't been bothered to take her boots off before bed the previous night. The knife flew across the room and once again, Grimes tried to use his weight to pin her down. This time, however, Emma ran at his side and used his own momentum to trip him up. Just as she did, the door broke down and Emma realised that there had been a loud hammering on it nearly the entire fight.
Obviously, they had caused enough of a ruckus for the crew above to hear. First into the room was Hook. He took in the scene before him and anger immediately replaced the confusion and annoyance that had previously resided there. Grimes looked up to the captain and stood quickly.
"Take. Him. Out." Hook said, grabbing Grimes' collar and thrusting him into the hands of the other men behind him. Immediately behind Hook was Mary Margaret and she entered the room, pushing past the irate pirate.
"What did he do?" In that moment, Emma had never seen her mother more powerful and furious. She seemed to glow red, much similar to the way Hook was now looking. As she noted the broken strap of Emma's singlet, the glow intensified and Emma was surprised steam didn't start billowing out of her ears.
"I'm alright, he just… um…" Emma wasn't sure how to explain it. She shook her head and moved her hand to push some hair out of her face. That's when she noticed the fairly deep scar that was bleeding heavily from her hand. Hook was suddenly in front of her, holding her arm.
"Your hand. Come with me." He began pulling her out of the room. Mary Margaret followed.
As the trio passed the crew that had been waiting outside the room, Emma noted their facial expressions, their body language and gestures. While there were still ones of withering annoyance and anger, some unexpectedly held respect. She even received three nods or reverence as she passed. Emma continued to follow Hook out and onto the deck. As they were about to reach his quarters, Hook turned to Mary Margaret.
"Mary Margaret, I appreciate that she is your daughter but in order for me to deal with Grimes I need to know what occurred in that room without interruption or expletive comments. I also need to see to her wound. You may go back to work."
Mary Margaret looked at Hook as if he had just suggested she grow wings and jump from the ship. "If you think I'm just going to leave her with you –"
"Mary Margaret," Emma interrupted. Hook looked around impatiently and she gave Mary Margaret a nod of assurance; her mother was not going to leave unless Emma consented. Warring inwardly with herself, Mary Margaret sighed and moved back to the main deck. Emma turned and entered Hook's chamber. He followed closely behind, deviating only to move to the heavy desk where he opened a drawer and extracted a small wooden box.
Hook motioned to the bed and Emma sat down, mentally noting how soft the mattress felt.
As he poured some of the amber liquid on the wound Emma yelped, snatching her hand back in shock. Hook nimbly caught it and brought it back to his inspection.
"What the hell was that?" Emma asked, her wound still stinging.
"Rum, so it doesn't get infected. A bloody waste too… we could have shared some instead," Hook raised his sight to match her own and wiggled his eyebrows, smirking as she rolled her eyes. Lowering his gaze, Hook's brow furrowed.
"It's quite deep - definitely needs stitches… How about you explain what happened?" He proceeded to pull out a needle and wiry thread. It almost impressed him that she didn't need to look away as the needle pierced her skin, only flinching slightly but otherwise remaining emotionless.
"I woke up late and was surprised. I got out of bed and that's when he came in. He told me that I was still in there because he'd given orders supposedly from you for me to be left alone in the room. When I told him to get out, he rushed me with the knife. We struggled… I guess I cut my hands when I was fending him off…" Emma stopped and glanced at the concentration on Hook's face, immediately regretting the way she subconsciously admired his chiselled jaw line. Even if she had lost respect for him, it would be a lie to claim he wasn't the most attractive man she'd ever seen.
Turning away, Emma continued, "While we were struggling, he tried to pull my shirt off. I managed to get him off me and… then I tripped him and I guess that knocked him out for a few seconds and… that's when you all came in."
Emma realised that the stinging that had previously been attacking her hand was now replaced by warmth. Hook was currently bandaging her hand using his good hand and mouth.
As he fastened it with a knot his stubbled jaw brushing her skin. She hid her reaction to the contact by scrutinising him, eyes narrowed as she stood.
"When did you become such a gentleman?" Emma asked incredulously and Hook smirked, standing up to look down at her.
"I'm always a gentleman and it would be bitch for you to get an infection, that would cause me problems."
"I don't recall you being a gentleman yesterday, or is this more of a under-the-right-conditions sort of thing?" Emma said acidly, reminding him that she wasn't forgiving him based on this. It would take a lot more than a bandage for her to even start to forgive what he had done.
Hook looked anywhere but Emma and stood up. She shook her head and stood to move forward but was blocked by him. His eyes fell on her broken singlet strap and filled with loathing. Emma touched the strap gingerly, pulling it down and tying it to the remainder of her singlet. She had forgotten about that, now her only shirt was ruined.
"Look, I've kind of had enough of men blocking my doorways today so… move." Emma looked up, defiant and unafraid. Even though he had slapped her just a day before and even though she didn't justify what he did, she still saw no violent tendencies in him. In one swift movement, Hook stepped aside.
"I apologise for Grimes. He will be walking the plank this afternoon for his actions," he paused and Emma looked at him expectantly, that wasn't all he had to apologise for, "and I admit that my actions yesterday were less than savoury, you were right." It seemed to take him a great deal of effort to get those words out. Smiling inwardly, she reckoned Hook wasn't exactly the type to apologise. With the apology out, Emma nodded in thanks. She hesitated slightly before moving quickly for the door.
This doesn't mean you forgive him, Emma told herself none-too-lightly. But she knew that he was telling the truth when he uttered those words, she would have been able to tell otherwise.
And then she rejoined the crew on deck.
"Swan!" Emma heard her name as she exited the captain's quarters. It was coming from a tall muscular man; he had been one of the men to nod at her. She was pretty sure his name was Hugo.
Moving to stand in front of him, Emma replied, "Yeah Hugo?"
"Good job. Defending yourself, I mean. There aren't many women ballsy enough to fight off a wretch like Grimesy and… well, talk back to a captain." He smiled, patting Emma on the back gruffly.
"Um, thanks? I thought everyone on this ship hated me?" Emma queried, unsure of how to respond to his revelation.
"Some do – they think you and the other maidens are wasting our time, that it's unfair how quickly Captain made a deal with you all… as for the slaps? Well, usually we have brawls and I think everyone on this ship is restraining themselves by simply backhanding you." His explanation made sense and Emma couldn't help but smile at the thought of these big burly crew members femininely slapping each other when things got heated.
"Hm. So do you hate me?" Emma asked candidly as she scrutinised Hugo.
"Nah, me and Leigh over there think it's good to have someone that tests the captain – makes things interesting," Hugo chuckled, "it hasn't been like that since… um." Hugo's expression changed, realising he'd said too much and walking back to the man named Leigh. Emma nodded, suddenly brighter about the journey despite her confusion at his last unfinished sentence.
When the sun eventually began its descent towards the horizon, Hook entered onto the main deck.
"Attention everyone!" His voice resonated throughout the ship. Hook motioned to the decks below and two men entered, holding Grimes on either side. He was still smiling viciously and stared at Emma as they thrust him towards the plank now protruding from the boat.
"This miserable idiot is walking the plank as a result of attempting to heinously harm one of the crewmembers." Hook motioned to Emma and their eyes locked for a good second before a voice at the far end of the ship called away their attention.
"She's not a member of this crew! She should be walking the plank!" Talice's voice was filled with the hate that he felt towards Emma. Hook pointed to Talice in a movement too quick to catch.
"He will be walking the plank also. Does anyone else have an opinion they'd like to share?" Hook challenged the crew as two men on either side of Talice dragged him next to where Grimes stood. Silence answered Hook's question and he stepped towards the two men.
"Walk."
Without hesitation, Grimes stepped quickly onto the plank and turned. Before he dived into the dark water he looked at Emma and said, in a tone so filled with malice that even she stopped short, "I'm not done with you."
His splash was soon followed by Talice's own. Hook turned to Emma, having seen the exchange – he's bloody perceptive Emma thought, remembering the day they had been caught and he had noticed Mary Margaret glance worriedly at Emma. As the moon rose and dinner was served, the women chose to eat with the men on the deck.
Hope you like :)
