Killian and Belle were both bent over a book, discussing something in low tones, when Will Scarlet entered the shop. Emma looked over from where she was leaning against the counter, another book in her hand, to see him come to an abrupt stop, his face taking on a wary expression.

"Sheriff," he said, his tone just as guarded as his expression.

"Will," Belle said with a smile – a brighter one than Emma had seen from her in a while. "You're okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" he countered. He had a smile for Belle, but it faded against as his gaze slid over to Killian. "Let me guess. The pirate and the saviour. That's got to mean trouble."

Killian glowered at him. "We're not the ones at fault, Scarlet."

"Of course not," Will agreed, in much the same tone. Emma suppressed a sigh. But she could hardly blame Will for not getting along with Killian. She knew firsthand how much of a challenge that was.

Belle cleared her throat, giving Killian a look before turning her attention back to Will. "We're trying to decipher a passage in that old book about seafaring legends. Do you know anything about Davy Jones?"

Will frowned. "He's a legend."

"Apparently not just a legend," Belle said. "Hook says he's here."

"Ah, well, if Hook says so, it must be true," Will said. "Davy Jones is a pirate's superstition, nothing more."

"He's here," Emma cut in. "He attacked us and almost drowned Eric and Ariel."

Will shrugged. "And that means he's a living legend?"

Emma rolled her eyes. "If it wasn't Davy Jones, it was some other creepy, homicidal pirate with a temper."

Will only raised his eyebrows and looked at Hook, who bristled again.

"Who likes to drown people in bathtubs and tried to kill us both," Emma went on, feeling her own temper rise.

Will frowned. "Why?"

"Ariel says he's here for cursed souls," Belle said.

Will shot her a sharp look. "In other words, everyone here."

"Except you," she said. "And a few others who escaped the queen's curse." Her expression became imploring. "You've been to a few realms. Are you sure you've never heard of him?"

Emma exchanged a startled look with Killian, saw that this was news to him as well. She barely knew Will Scarlet. Apparently, Belle knew him a lot better.

Suddenly, his presence here, and that smile on Belle's face, made a lot more sense.

"Heard of him, sure," Will said. "He's a pirate legend. I've never actually run across him." That last was said with a questioning look at Hook.

The pirate shook his head. "Nor I. Until about ten minutes ago, that is."

"We need more information," Emma said. "

"There are a few references to still water in the stories," Belle added, gesturing at the book on the counter. "And it's in the language, too – the calm before the storm, still waters run deep. I haven't found any reference to baths, though."

"Maybe because pirates don't bathe," Will suggested, which earned him another glare from Killian.

"Assuming Davy Jones does exist," Killian said in a tone that made it clear that he was taking the higher road here, "it would stand to reason that he's the danger behind such warnings. Similar stories exist about lakes and ponds."

"But not bathtubs," Belle said.

"Except at least a hundred scenes in horror movies," Emma added. She'd meant it as a wry remark, but they all frowned at her like she'd started speaking another language. "You know? The pretty blonde's in the bath, something creeps out and drags her under, and goes on a two-hour long killing spree?" She looked at their blank expressions, and realisation caught up to her. Neither Hook nor Belle had been here long enough to see a lot of movies, and now that she thought about it, Will didn't strike her as the type to be a horror fan. "Never mind."

"Well, there's our story, I suppose," Belle said. "But why here, and not – oh."

"Oh?" Emma echoed.

"The plumbing," Belle said excitedly. "It connects to the sea, doesn't it?"

Emma saw where she was going with that before the two men seemed to. "In a really roundabout way, I guess, yeah. You think that's how he's able to get around? To exert his... I don't know, is it even magic?"

Before anyone could reply, the door to the shop burst open, making Emma jump. She and Killian turned in unison, Killian's hand already going for his sabre.

But it was Regina who strode through the door, followed by David, Snow, and Henry. David had the ever-present diaper bag slung over one shoulder, while Snow pushed the stroller with the baby.

"Oh, good, you're here," Snow said breathlessly, glancing at Emma and Killian.

"We need your help," David added to Belle.

Emma's first worry was for Henry, but the boy seemed fine, helping Snow with the stroller and sending worried glances at Regina.

Regina looked pale, Emma realised. But the determination in her face as strong as ever as she strode up to the counter. "What do you know about this?"

She held up her hand, palm out. Emma craned her neck, and felt her heart give a little lurch. Regina's palm was blackened, the dark patch forming the shape of an oval with messy lines sticking out from it. Like a rotting sun, the thought came to Emma's mind.

Belle took Regina's hand and turned it to inspect the palm. Emma felt movement beside her as Killian stepped closer, leaning against her shoulder as he tried to see.

"Bloody hell," he muttered.

Emma leaned a little closer to him, keeping her voice low. "Guess we know it works."

He swallowed. "Aye."

"I was getting a bath ready for Henry," Regina was saying, "and something tried to push me into the water. I had to use magic to stop it, and when I did, there was a man there. He grabbed me, put his hand on my chest—" she touched the area just under her collarbone to demonstrate "—and said something about the kraken getting me out of the way. Then he disappeared, and I noticed this." She nodded at her hand. "What is it?"

Belle swallowed. "If I had to guess," she said, "that's the mark of the kraken."

"The kraken?" David echoed. "As in the big thing with tentacles that eats ships for breakfast?"

"And dinner," Killian said. "Aye. We were just looking into that."

"You were?" Regina repeated. "Why? Did you know?" Her eyes narrowed. "Did you have something to do with this?"

"I may be a pirate, but I'm not allied with Davy Jones," Killian told her, a little stiffly.

"We ran into him as well," Emma said before they could bicker further. "He tried to put the mark on Hook, too." She seized his hand and checked the palm again, just to make sure. But the skin was still unmarked, save for the few calluses that came with a lifetime of sailing the seas.

"He what?" David asked, looking from her to Killian. "You didn't mention that!"

"Are you okay?" Snow actually looked worried as she, too, looked Killian up and down.

"Aye," he assured her, and though he hid it well, Emma caught his surprise at all the concern. David had mostly accepted Killian as part of the team, if nothing else, but Snow had been slow to warm up to him.

And then, there was the added surprise at the fact that anyone had concern for him in the first place. That, Emma understood completely.

He regarded his own hand, and Emma realised that she was still holding it. She let go, and he shot her a look she couldn't quite read as he showed the others his palm. "It doesn't appear to have worked. Anymore than he was able to touch Emma."

Emma could see the renewed concern on her parents' faces at that, and spoke quickly to forestall it. "And now I really want to know why." She looked at Regina. "I felt the same thing you did, like an invisible hand trying to pull me under. But Killian wasn't affected by it. Any idea why?"

"Perhaps it's something about the hook," Killian said impatiently. "Perhaps whatever he does only affects flesh and blood. Or perhaps it's because I wasn't cursed."

"Neither was Emma. And it doesn't explain how you escaped the mark of the kraken," Belle said.

"Performance issues, perhaps," Hook suggested, an annoyed edge creeping into his voice. "Can we move on to the business of figuring out how to kill him?"

"That might be related," Regina said. She looked a little pale, but determined. "If you're immune, that might give us an advantage. If it's magic, I should be able to trace it."

"I'll keep looking here," Belle said, indicating the stack of books on the counter.

Emma thought briefly of sending Henry home, but it was a pointless instinct, left over from her time in New York. He already knew what was going on. Besides, with her and Regina here, and Killian's as-of-yet-unexplained talent for rescuing Davy Jones' victims, this was probably the safest place for him.

He seemed to pick up on her impulse to send him home, because he quickly volunteered his help, with a look that pleaded with her to let him stay.

"I can help," he said. "I'll watch the baby and read him stories." He held up a book of seafaring legends that Belle had brought out with the others, although this one was clearly written for children.

Emma chuckled. "That kid is getting some strange bedtime stories."

"Read him the one about the pirate and the mermaid," Killian told him. "That's a good one."

Henry grinned. "Awesome." He busied himself with flicking through the pages.

"Way to encourage him," Emma muttered to Killian, but he only grinned as well, shrugging one shoulder.

"Whenever you're ready, Miss Swan," Regina broke in, "I need to borrow your pirate."

Emma felt her patience strain at his phrasing. Why did she always have to do that?

Her first instinct was to insist that Killian wasn't her pirate and could do as he pleased, but she caught herself just in time. That would only make an issue of it. Besides, once she'd gotten over the instinctive annoyance at these jibes, she'd begun to hear the longing behind them. Regina's time with Robin had been a brief reprieve from it, and his leaving could only have made it worse. Emma knew how that went.

So instead, she ignored the dig. "You find something?"

"Maybe." She gestured at Killian. "Well, come on, I don't bite."

"Very reassuring," Killian muttered, but he crossed the room to where Regina stood, leaving Emma to get back to the book she'd been looking through.

She kept half an eye on the two of them from across the room, because Killian, Regina, and a tense situation was not a good combination. Especially not with Will Scarlet around to throw in the occasional sarcastic comment. The others talked, Belle handing David a book and Snow making a comment about something to her, but Emma stayed silent and alert.

She hadn't even made it through half the book when things suddenly got loud again.

"You're bloody daft," Hook exclaimed, staring at the former evil queen. "He's a dead legend, how the bloody hell can anyone be descended from him?"

"Presumably anything relevant would have taken place before the 'dead legend' part," Regina said, her tone grating on Hook's nerves. "In case you've forgotten, Snow White is something of a legend too, and yet here we are with her daughter and grandson."

"What's going on?" Snow asked. "Did you find something?"

Hook gestured at Regina. "We seem to have found her Majesty's over-active imagination."

"All right, calm down." David put a hand on his shoulder, looking past him at the others. "What's the matter?"

"We know why Hook was able to dodge all of Davy Jones' attacks," Regina said. "He's descended from him. They share a bloodline, so it's like blood magic. In this case, it means that whatever power Davy Jones has, it can't affect Hook."

"So he is immune," Emma said. She'd all but jumped forward when Hook had shouted at Regina, and he was willing to bet she hadn't made it through half of her book, if she'd read it at all. On edge, as usual.

"Apparently," Regina said. "Davy Jones has no magic of his own. His power comes from his curse, and the fact that he's dead without being dead. There's only one way to escape that kind of power."

"And there's the surname," Belle added, a note of excitement in her voice as she put it together. "Jones. It fits."

Killian ran a hand over his chin. Unfortunately, it really did fit, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. He'd always known that the sea was in his blood. But this?

"Figures," Emma said on a sigh.

He didn't like that idea, that it somehow made sense. He had nothing in common with Davy Jones. Don't you? "How does it figure?"

Emma raised her eyebrows. "Are you kidding? He had to be related to someone around here. That's pretty much a law at this point."

Beside Killian, David chuckled, a sound caught halfway between amusement and resignation. "It does seem that way sometimes." He clapped Killian on the shoulder. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm kind of glad it's you this time. Our family tree has been getting pretty crowded."

Killian made a face at the two of them. "Something I've never envied you for." And this was not how he'd envisioned adding to his, although he wasn't about to say anything about that in present company.

Emma looked away and cleared her throat. "Right. So. We know he can't harm Hook, and we know magic can drive him off. What else?"

"We know that he's a dead man stuck in the land of the living," Regina said. "The legend says that he keeps his heart in a chest, right?"

He addressed that question to Regina, who nodded. "Aye. But it also says that he can't walk on land save once every ten years."

"I think I've figured that out," Belle said. "I think it's because the pipes connect everything to the sea. And I'd bet that he was standing in a puddle when he attacked you."

"Getting past the terms on a technicality," Emma muttered. She sighed. "Pirate."

Killian shot her a look, but there was no judgement in her face or voice, only a little exasperation.

"My best guess is that the heart is what anchors him to this world," Regina said. "Stab the heart, kill the pirate."

"Find the heart first," Killian reminded her. "And since he doesn't keep it with him, that could be difficult. Pirates are rather good at hiding treasure."

"If it's out there, we'll find it," Snow said, and David nodded.

"Finding things is something we're rather good at."

"Wait." Regina looked at Killian. "If Hook's related to Davy Jones, then we may already have a shortcut to finding his heart. There's a spell I learned from my mother for tracking down a heart. I should be able to find Davy Jones' heart using Hook's."

"Use it how?" he asked, immediately suspicious.

Regina favoured him with one of her many patronising smirks. "You can relax, the process is non-invasive and totally painless."

He believed her. That surprised him. But it didn't quench the fear that gripped his chest like a vice. He didn't want any magic anywhere near his heart. Especially not hers.

He gave her a smile just as fake as hers had been. "No, thank you."

"It's the fastest way," Regina said. "Maybe even the only way. Are you really going to be a child about it?"

Killian glared. As if he didn't have reason to be wary. As if this was just an illogical whim. But he couldn't say that, any of it. He could barely admit it to himself.

But, for once, he didn't have to.

"Oh, come on, you can't blame him for being a little reluctant," David told Regina.

Snow nodded. "Maybe there's another way. Maybe Emma can do it."

"Me?" Emma looked from her mother, to Killian, and back again. "But I'm not... I mean, I've never—I don't even know how."

"Well, Regina learned it," Snow said reasonably. "And she's been teaching you."

"Yeah, but..." Emma shook her head. "What if I mess it up?"

And right then, Killian knew that if she was willing to try it, he would let her. Perversely, her doubts were reassuring. He'd wondered about that before, about why Emma's magic never scared or worried him, why he felt reassured by her doubts even as he tried to help dispel them.

It wasn't about his feelings for her, or even about magic. It was about power. Emma didn't use her magic for power; she was reluctant to use it at all. Rumplestiltskin and Regina, on the other hand, sometimes seemed almost like addicts, using it every chance they got. It was a little like the boys learning to climb the rigging, he thought. The overconfident ones always fell at least once. The ones who made it first try were those who kept a healthy amount of doubt, an awareness that the ship and the sails and especially the sea and the wind were bigger and stronger than they were.

"You won't," he said to Emma. "And I'm afraid it's you or no one."

Her expression stayed wary. "Killian, I'm not the expert here."

"It's not that complicated," Regina said, unexpectedly dropping the attitude. "I can walk you through it. If you listen."

After another brief hesitation, Emma nodded. "Fine. So say we find the heart. Then what?"

"Then we stab it and open a gate to the underworld so he can pass through to the other side," Regina said.

She made it sound easy. Emma wasn't buying it any more than Hook was. "Of course. We just open a gate to the underworld. Sounds easy."

Regina caught her sarcasm. "Of course it isn't easy. If it were easy, people would try it all the time. But there is a way."

"You can do it?" Snow asked.

"With the right tools and determination, anyone can," Regina said. "There just isn't any point, usually. You can't bring someone back from the land of the dead. What's dead must stay dead."

No one asked how she knew. If there was a way to bring someone back from the dead, she would have found and done it long before now.

"I can enchant an object so that it will open a gate when we're ready," Regina went on. "Trust me, the hardest part will be getting the heart."

"Right." Emma blew out a breath and looked at Killian and Regina. "Looks like we have a plan. So. How do we find the heart?"

Regina hesitated and gave Killian a look that almost seemed apologetic. "You might want to find somewhere to sit down."