The drabble prompt that's taking a life of it's own! Reviews always appreciated :D
flamingjets - Emma saving hook from the wicked witch and a tlk with smutt or smuff
The Hook - Part Two of Four
Soft footsteps jogged up behind Emma as she marched down the main street of Storybrooke, head turning as she looked for the Wicked Witch. The town was completely deserted, the residents falling into an uneasy pattern of locking themselves in at night and staying out of the way.
"Emma, wait," David called out as he caught up with her, his cheeks slightly pink from the exertion of getting to her.
"You're not stopping me," she replied flatly, as she stared at her father firmly, denying the possibility of any argument.
On the outside, she looked fairly in the control of the situation, calm and collected Emma Swan.
On the inside, she was a raging inferno of emotions, ranging from pissed off to fucking terrified.
How many hours has he been gone? Is he okay?
Her father shook his head and gave her a knowing half-smile. "I meant what I said back at Granny's, about playing into her hands, but I would be doing the same thing if she had Mary-Margaret." He shrugged his shoulders, "I figured you could use some support."
Her mind and heart were too occupied with finding Hook to realize the deeper meaning of David's carefully chosen words. Ever since he didn't show to Granny's, Emma felt like she couldn't breathe, she slowly was suffocating from her panic. Holding up a hand, she tried to catch her breath in the road, hands on her knees as she tried to pull in a deep lungful of air.
David reached out and grabbed her shoulder pulling her up to look at him. "Deep breaths. With me, Emma!" He said urgently as he sucked in a breath, forcing Emma to stop her sudden panic attack and just focus on controlling her breathing.
A long minute passed (breathe in, breathe out) before she spoke again, "Thanks."
"I may have missed being there for you when you were growing up, but I'll be damned if I can't be here for you now," David replied quietly, his eyes locked with hers, matching green to green. His hand drifted down to the replacement sword at hip, graciously borrowed from the Merry Men.
Emma felt a renewing surge of hope flood through at having David's stand with her. She gave him a small smile. "Thanks… Dad."
She straightened and turned to face the empty road. "ZELENA!" She shouted, eyes blazing, one hand resting on the curve of her gun. "Here I am! Time to show your hideous green face!"
Suddenly, a disturbing puff of green smoke that swirled up next to her and Zelena appeared with an evil cackle. "You rang?" She waved her finely manicured green hands out in the air with a delicate flourish. A cold wind picked up around her, blowing leaves and dust in it's wake.
David and Emma both simultaneously drew their weapons and stepped away from her. "Where is he?" Emma asked the evil witch through gritted teeth, gun aimed at her chest. Her heart was beating a mile a minute, every moment wasted fighting was a moment that Hook was in danger.
She would not fail him.
"Do you really think that you'd do any damage with that weapon?" Zelena replied, voice dripping with distain as she circled around them and eyed Emma's gun. "I mean, really a gun? How… primitive. Besides, I'm protected by magic, your weapon would just bounce off my shield."
"Come closer and I'll gladly punch you in the face instead." Emma growled.
The witch tsked as she maneuvered closer to them, "Such brutality from the supposed Savior. But, you can't save them all, can you Savior? Poor Baelfire. Poor Hook, or do you call him Killian, now? Two men stuck loving such a useless creature."
In the distance, thunder boomed menacingly, the cold wind picking up in its intensity.
David glared daggers at the witch, while Emma bristled at the sound of his real name coming from her lips, refusing to lower her weapon. "Where is he?" She repeated, refusing to play games.
How many hours has he been gone? Is he okay?
Time was ticking.
The evil glint shone in Zelena's eyes. "Ah, thought I would bring him? You are sorely mistaken." She laughed loudly, echoing down the empty streets. "No, it took some time to get him to confront his deepest fears," the witch stepped closer to Emma and whispered conspiratorially, "which I must confess were delicious to learn about." She waved a hand and Emma could see a image of Killian, battling against a cold, mocking version of himself, spinning and whirling in the forest, cutlasses snapping in the cold night air.
Emma pulled back the hammer of her pistol, debating about just shooting her when the gun was ripped from her hands, disappearing in a green cloud.
Zelena wagged a finger at her, tauntingly. "I don't think it will be that easy, Emma." Her wicked smile only grew as they locked eyes. "Your poor, reformed pirate has so many troubles. He fears that one of you will die, but that's just so mundane. Boring! It took me a bit longer, had to dig a little deeper in that dark mind of his… Offer some creative… persuasion, to discover that one of his true fears is that you and your pathetic family will reject him!" She cackled with glee before continuing, "he fears that you'll leave him to be alone, abandoned, unloved, and unworthy, as he has been left so many other times in his pitifully long life."
The image before her showed Hook admitting the fears as he bore down on the dark Hook version, finally vanquishing the demon before slumping over against a nearby tree.
Her pulse pounded in her ears as her thoughts raced. Killian must know that he's part of us now. He's my family. I need him.
"Save it witch!" David yelled, just as upset about hearing Hook's fears as she was.
"Ah… my poor Prince Charming," Zelena turned, her eyes glittering at a new target to taunt. "Finally supporting the daughter you left? Trying to become a good father now?"
David raised his sword slightly, his body curled into a defensive battle position.
The witch turned her attention back to Emma. "He has one more fear, you know." She mentioned casually, carefully patting her hair.
Emma raised an eyebrow and glared at the witch, feeling her rage and fear cause her magic to itch at her fingertips, one hand going to curl around Hook's hook in her pocket. "What's that, you psycho green bitch?"
She laughed evilly, "Oh dear. He's just like any other sailor. All afraid of the same thing, drowning. It was such a lucky turn of events that I just so happened to have this old Sleeping Curse on a hatpin."
She waved her hand again, images rushing past. Hook being restrained and dragged to a dark room, fighting with all his might as he was tied to a bed, the Witch hovering over him, pulling the hook from his arm and gleefully pricking his stump with the cursed hat pin. His blue eyes fluttering closed as he slumped over.
"Ah, such a fitting end for a sailor. Drowning while cursed, he'll never even be able to move while the water rises up and he drowns… very… very… slowly." Zelena whispered, her voice hardly containing her joy.
The final image flickered slightly, then held. Water was pouring in the room where Hook slumbered.
Emma felt the magic roar to life within her.
She heard a distinct buzzing in her ears as she reacted, magic coursing through her fingertips. She pulled his hook from her pocket, her fingers clenched around the cool metal in a death grip and swung it at Zelena with all the force she could summon.
Zelena's face went from smug to shocked in an instant. The hook, with combined with Emma's magic, went through her magic shield with ease. It sliced through the air and sank into her heart, a small blossom of red blood seeping through her dress almost instantly. She gasped in pain and dropped to her knees in the middle of the street.
Time slowed, blood pounded sluggishly in her veins.
"Where. IS. HE?" Emma screamed, watching the pain radiate through Zelena's face, hands steady on the hook in her chest. She could feel the magic surge in an attempt to shake it off the hook.
Nonetheless, Emma's magic borne of fear, anger, and she could hardly put the name to it, but, yes there it was…love, stomped over the Zelena's weak attempts with all the force the daughter of True Love could muster.
"Tick tock, Savior, you'll never find him in time," she forced out one last, weakened taunt, as the blood stain quickly spread, darkening the green dress. The sky illuminated briefly when lightning suddenly flashed, thunder rolling above them. A fine mist starting to rain down, sizzling as the wet droplets made contact with Zelena's open wound. David and Emma looked over in surprise to see Regina and Robin standing around the corner, Regina's arms raised in the air as she summoned the rain, Robin calmly covering her with his crossbow cocked.
Maybe the storybook actually got one right.
"Make it pour!" David yelled to the pair, watching the steam rise from the witch as Emma held on fast, the hook still lodged firmly in her skin.
Lightning flashed again and with a frightening rumble, the thunder shook the street. Rain poured down from the blackened sky, soaking everyone in a matter of seconds. Zelena howled as the rain drove into her open wound, plastering her hair around her face as she continued to slump further into the ground.
Moments later, Emma brushed the wet hair out of her eyes, blinking furiously as she stood next to a puddle of steaming, wet clothing, Killian's hook still clutched tightly in her hands. The images of Hook lying in the dark room, water rushing in, still danced before her eyes.
How many hours has he been gone? How long has that room been filling with water?
She looked frantically over to David, her eyes wild with fear. "We have to find Hook!" She yelled above the sound pouring rain.
"I think I recognized that room from the docks!" He shouted, raising an arm to shield his eyes from the rain.
As she turned and sprinted for the yellow bug, Emma prayed that the suffocating feeling she had been fighting against all night was only in her imagination. David barely threw himself into the passenger seat before she slammed her foot on the gas, tires squealing as they took off for the docks.
Just hold on.
Please.