Hey, guys! I was astounded by the positive feedback I received for the previous two chapters; I'm so glad all you guys reviewed! This chapter is a little bit more serious and a lot less fluffy than the previous one, but I'll get them back to their wonderful banter soon enough. Don't you worry ;) For now, just enjoy and review!

It had been quite a while since Emma Swan's last (and painfully embarrassing encounter) with Hook, and she had begun to think that he had after all lost heart and given up. There were no angry reports of 'vandalism', 'thievery' or 'breaking and entering', no tips about a suspicious man dressed all in black walking the streets by night.

In fact, she hadn't even received a single call at the police station.

Even Gold seemed oblivious to Hook's presence in Storybrooke, and Emma could only conclude that he had finally thrown in the towel and accepted defeat. She convinced herself that that conclusion was not influenced by her hopes that he had, but instead just a logical verdict based on the happenings (or lack thereof) in her town...Of course, the reality was the complete opposite.

Hook had been carefully planning his attack, collecting as much information as he could on the notorious Rumplestiltskin and mapping out the murder step-by-step. It gave him a twisted sense of excitement, planning it. He pictured in his mind every sweetly disturbing moment, right down to Gold's tortured expression and the very last words to fall from his mouth. Many scenarios had played out in his mind, ones where he killed Gold with the very hook that replaced the hand Gold had stolen from him. Ones where he first killed Rumple's darling Belle in front of him and locked him in a cellar, letting him die of thirst and hunger and knowing that he had let Belle slip away from him. Still more popped into his head and Hook's insides churned with delicious anticipation as a nasty grin appeared on his face. It made him look unhinged and frantic, a man truly broken by the world in which he lived.

Unfortunately, however, with every dramatic and overly-violent scheme Hook could imagine, there was always some disturbance, one small hiccup that refused to get out of the way. It was a force that he would either have to destroy or overcome if he were to get his vengeance for Milah.

And it was because of this hiccup that Hook stood on Emma's doorstep four weeks later with an entirely pleasant smile on his face and a skip to his step. The second the blonde had swung open the door, he had walked readily in, eager to discover the stubborn woman's abode.

"Not much of a castle, is it?" he asked obviously. He walked superiorily around, hands clasped tightly behind his back, and wore a disapproving frown. As if he were trying to provoke her, he swept his index finger along the counter and scrutinized the bit of dust that he had picked up, brushing it off on his clothes distastefully.

"That would make sense, since we're living in the 21st century and I'm not royalty." Emma replied drily. She was not in the mood to play Hook's little games.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Are you not the daughter of Queen Snow and King Charming?" he asked redundantly, facing her and mirroring her rigid, angry stance. The woman decided to ignore his sarcastic comment and questioned in a chastising voice, "Did I say you could come in?"

"Well...as the man who saved your life, I assumed there was a level of familiarity between us."

"You didn't save my life."

Hook disregarded her words as he continued inspecting her home an air of aggravating authority, as if he owned the place!

"Tell me...how is it a princess doesn't even know how to swim?" he asked conversationally, picking up an apple that had been on the counter, sniffing it, and taking a bite.

"I'm telling you I can swim, you just didn't give me the opportunity to-"

Hook rolled his eyes as he tossed the perfectly good apple into the wastebasket, turning back to face her.

"Of course, Emma. I'm sure you would have been just fine had I not been there to save you."

The woman was prepared to strangle the impossible man in front of her, but settled for the more sensible (and less illegal) tactic...

"Why are you here, Hook?"

"Can't a man just drop by to see his friend?"

"We're not friends."

"I think we should get that way then. And soon."

Emma rolled her eyes and walked pointedly up to Hook, who had now decided to raid her refrigerator. Slamming the door closed, Emma met Hook's surprised gaze with an annoyed one.

"Why. Are. You. Here?"

"Let. Me. Kill. Rumple."

Emma raised her eyebrows questioningly at the man, surprised that he would be so straightforward. Then again, she was sure that pirates weren't well acquainted with subtlety.

"We've been over this." Emma said quietly. Hook swore that her tone sounded slightly apologetic and the way she had looked to the ground as she said it was almost reflective of...shame. He was getting to her. A little more and she would break. "And we can go over this again, Emma." The woman just shook her head and turned away from him, hiding her face from his view. That was definitely shame he saw. And it made him feel a twinge, (just a twinge!) of sympathy for the girl. He reached for her arm and forced her to face him, speaking now in a softer and more compassionate voice.

"Look, Emma. I've been at this for three hundred years. Anger like mine, just left to simmer and boil, doesn't simply go away. I will kill Rumpelstiltskin There's no other way. But..." he sighed and looked down to his feet. "...I don't want to hurt you. I don't want anyone else to get hurt in the crossfire. If you stand in my way, though, if you deny me my vengeance, then I will have to. Don't make me hurt you...please?"

Emma looked into the pirate's blue eyes as she listened to his words, said so softly and kindly it almost made her want to believe him. She could not detect any lie as he spoke, could see no trace of deception or nervousness in his beautiful features. It made her even angrier at him. He had been easier to hate before. Hook the monster. Hook the pirate. Hook the murderer. But now? He was Hook the compassionate. Hook the lover. Hook the gentle. His words almost made her want to let him have his way. She almost wanted to let him have Rumple. Almost.

"Do you know what kind of an uproar that would cause? You killing Rumple? This town has had enough of murder and loss and grieving! I don't need you contributing to that." She said frustratedly, pleading with him to see reason. "You're just going to scare people. They'll live in even greater fear than they do now. And they don't deserve that. None of them deserve that."

Emma was trying to appeal to his human side, trying to make Killian Jones, not Captain Hook, understand what she meant. And for a brief moment, as she stared helplessly into his eyes, she swore she saw a flicker of something. It could have been uncertainty, it could have been pain or even guilt, but it was more than his a-typical stubborn confidence.

As soon as that dim flicker had shone, it faded. Instead, it was drowned in disbelief and outrage. He was indignant that this silly, blind woman was trying to coax him out of getting something that the world owed him. And he was even more indignant that it had been working.

"And I deserve it?! I deserve to live in this God forsaken world with these insolent people for the rest of my life alongside him? Am I supposed to just pretend nothing had ever happened? He never killed Milah, he never took my hand? Is that it?! You would have me forget the past so that you can-"

Emma cut Hook off abruptly with an angry retort. Her voice was thick with emotion that she had not wanted to show and her eyes barely suppressed tears of sympathy for him.

"Of course not! Of course I don't expect you to forget! But I expect you to forgive. It's what any decent human being would do."

Hook bristled at her words and took a step forward so that his chest was flush with hers. A pitiful squeak escaped from her throat as Emma looked up at him, terrified as to what he might do. Instead of hitting her or shoving her as she had expected, however, he just spoke. His words were slow and dangerously low and Emma knew that he was angrier now than he could ever be when he was yelling.

"He's the inhuman one, darling. Not. Me."

And with that, Hook turned abruptly away from her and strode out her door, slamming it loudly behind himself and causing Emma to wince.

A few days later, Emma received a call at the police station.