Chapter 4: Turnover

Despite all the questions she wanted to ask him, Emma was trying her best to remain calm. "What are you doing here all alone? Where are your parents?"

"I came here to find you, I don't have parents. I just have a mom, and she's… evil."

His last word made Emma open wide eyes and she looked around, checking whether they were still alone. She saw Killian looking alert, with his hand on the hilt of his sword, ready to fight if that was needed. She caught his eye and nodded, assuring him it was all right; the boy couldn't mean what she thought he meant.

"Evil. That's a bit extreme, isn't it?"

"She is," he said. Emma had a knot in her stomach. "She doesn't love me; she only pretends to. You should know more than anyone."

"Why's that?" She asked without being sure she wanted to hear the answer.

"Because you know her. The Evil Queen." Hearing the words she had been dreading to hear, Emma stepped back. The boy's smile faded away. "Please don't let me go back there!"

"What do you want with me?" Emma asked, glancing around again. "Does she know you're here? Is this all a trap?"

"No, I am on your side, because I am your son. She doesn't know anything. I will explain everything to you. Just let me come aboard, it is not safe here."

"No place is safe," Emma replied bluntly, not ready to let him come on board so easily.

"The ship is, Rumplestitskin cast a protection spell over it."

"You know Rumplestitskin?" She opened wide eyes again. "And what do you mean with protection spell?"

"A spell to hide the ship, so that no one can see it."

He seemed convinced by his own words, but Emma turned around to glance at the ship, and turned to the boy again. "I can see it, it's just there."

"But I can't. You can only because you were aboard when he cast the spell. But I don't have time to explain now, please let me come on board."

"I… Just wait here."

Emma went back to Killian, who still had his hand on the hilt of his sword. The boy started to follow her but stopped midway.

"Are you alright, love?"

"I don't know. I think we should go. He wants to come on board, but I don't know if we can trust him. Killian, he's her son; the Evil Queen's son! He says she doesn't know about our encounter but how can I be sure? He also knows the Dark One and says he has cast a protection spell over the ship. This all sounds crazy, how can I know he's telling the truth?"

"Try using your superpower, see if he's lying," Killian suggested, keeping a cool head. She gazed into his eyes, hoping to find a solution there.

"He looks sure about what he's saying, but just because he believes something doesn't make it true."

"Perhaps you should give him a chance."

"We have to go, and leave him here." She covered his hand with hers, ready to pull him back on board.

"Love, if you do this, doubts and regrets will torment you for years. You won't ever forgive yourself."

"But what if this is all a trap?"

"Can I talk to him?" he asked.

Emma nodded and Killian gestured the boy to join them. A bright smile back on his lips, Henry walked fast, preventing himself from running. He stopped in front of them and glanced at the hook before looking up at Killian with some kind of admiring look.

"Lad, you said the Evil Queen, who is your mother, doesn't know you're here, and that the ship is under a protection spell?"

"That's right!"

"And now you want to come on board. Why?" Killian asked.

The boy turned to Emma. "Because I'm your son, and I want to be with you."

Killian glanced at her, who was staring at the boy while feeling this lump in her throat even more than before. "Give us a few seconds, lad."

"Sure."

Killian pulled her a few steps away. "Love, I'd say there's nothing wrong with the lad, he seems honest to me. You know what I think we should do, but it has to be your choice."

Gazing into his eyes, still looking for answers, Emma sighed. "I don't trust him, but I trust you."

She pecked his lips and turned to the boy. Killian was right: she couldn't see anything wrong with him. And everything he had said had sounded true to her; not once she had felt like he was lying. She cracked a smile.

"Alright, kid. You're coming with us."

"Yeah!"

Her smile vanished from her features as soon as she was out of their sights, climbing up the steps to the deck. She was feeling like the lump in her throat was so large that she might choke on it anytime. The boy followed her, amazement settling on his features when the ship appeared to him as he placed his foot on the first step. Killian brought up the rear.

"To your stations, let's sail away!" Killian said once he was on deck, going to stand by Emma's side and softly taking her hand in his, his thumb brushing the back of her hand. "Welcome aboard, lad!"

"Awesome!" he said, watching the sailors being active. "I'm on Captain Hook's ship!"

Emma's hold tightened around the pirate's fingers, the lump in her throat threatening to choke her.

"Captain Hook?" Killian smirked, an eyebrow raised. The boy locked his eyes on him.

"That's how they've taken to call you back there in the Enchanted Forest."

Emma's hold tightened more, the presence of the boy making her feel nothing but uncomfortable; which didn't seem to be the case for Killian.

"Quite a colorful moniker!" Rather amused by this nickname, he kept massaging Emma's back of her hand, trying to make her see everything was alright. "So you've heard of me?"

"Of course! Everyone knows you as the one who saved mum twice from the Evil Queen."

Hearing him call her 'mum' made her feel like she needed to sit down, to be on her own for a little while, but she didn't want to look weak in front of him. In the meantime, feeling how uneasy she was, Killian was willing to pull her in one of those embraces which seemed to soothe her so easily, to kiss her and free her of her burden, but he felt like he couldn't do that in front of her son. Taking his hand back, he passed his arm in her back and reached for her other hand, in the meantime pulling her closer to him. The boy, however, looked like he was the happiest child: his smile was still brightening his features and he kept looking at Killian admiringly.

"Everyone knows you both as heroes."

"Hear that, love?" Killian asked with a smile, giving her a sidelong glance and pulling her closer against him. "We're known as heroes!"

He was trying to cheer her up, but she kept staring at her son. Meanwhile, the boy kept his eyes locked on Killian and, only when he caught his eye again, asked his question.

"Are you my dad?"

"Kid." The word escaped her on a rather reproving tone while she squeezed Killian's hand. Though still not considering the boy standing in front of her as her son, it was because of her that he was here, and thus she was feeling responsible for him and for whatever he might do or say. Until then remaining silent, the only thing she hadn't wanted was for Killian to feel embarrassed because of him, and this had been the one question too many. But the captain was fine and tried to let her know by rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb.

"I'm not," Killian simply replied.

Wondering how he was staying so calm, Emma then seemed to notice a touch of disappointment settling on the kid's features when he heard the answer. When he turned to her, he looked like he was stopping himself from asking all the questions which he seemed to have. But he wasn't the only one to have many questions.

"Alright, kid," Emma repressed a sigh, gathering her courage to talk to him. "I think there are many things you need to explain."

But he didn't have time to say anything, since their attention was drawn to a sailor talking loudly while looking into their direction.

"Haven't we been through enough already by having her on board?" He asked, indicating Emma. "And now, we have to welcome him as well?"

Liam, who was talking to two other men nearby, came to him. "What's this about?"

"I've seen him before," replied the sailor, not taking his eyes off of them. "He's the Evil Queen's son!"

"Do I need to remind you what happens to those who discuss the captain's orders?" Killian asked, his jaw clenched.

"No, captain."

The sailor cast a glance at Emma and her son before looking down and going back to his duties. Emma knew what Killian was referring to: when she had come back aboard after being locked up in that tower for weeks, she had noticed the new pirate look wasn't the only change; there had also been a reduction of the crew. She had never seen again all those who had showed any sign of reluctance to her coming on board. When she had asked him about it, he had reassured her by saying he had showed mercy and hadn't made them walk the plank as they would have deserved, but had simply dismissed them when they were on land.

"There shouldn't be any more trouble. I've warned all of our sailors about the presence of our new guest, and they reacted quite well," Liam said, pulling Emma out of her thoughts.

Killian nodded approvingly and indicated him to come closer. "You haven't been formally introduced. Lad, this is my brother, Liam. Liam, this is Henry, the new member of our crew."

"Captain Hook's brother? Awesome!" he said, once again looking like he was the happiest boy.

"Captain Hook?" asked Liam turning to his brother, amused.

"Aye, my new moniker," he said with a smirk. "Rather fancy, don't you think?"

Not knowing how to handle the situation, Emma had remained quiet, holding onto Killian's hand, watching the two brothers and the boy she didn't manage to consider as his son. Killian looked down at him.

"Lad, I reckon you have quite a tale to tell." He looked up at his brother. "The quarters will be the best. Can you lead him there?"

As soon as they left, Killian faced Emma, cupped her cheek and looked into her eyes.

"I'm being terrible," she sighed.

"Love, don't be too hard on yourself."

"But what if I truly can't be a mother? I don't even know what to say to him."

"Give yourself some time."

"I'm looking at him and all I see is a stranger. I don't consider him as my son."

"Emma, do you remember what I told you yesterday? It'll require some time before you get used to the idea he's your son. Be patient and everything will be alright."

Leaning into his touch and covering his hand with hers, she softly sighed. "Do you really think so?"

"I know so. Now, how do you feel about going to the quarters to talk to him?"

"I will be fine," she said, trying to convince herself in the meantime.

With a proud smile, his fingers slipped in her hair and he pulled her to him for a kiss. His lips trailed across her cheek and pressed in her neck while he hugged her for a moment.

"You're amazing, don't you forget it," he whispered in her ear. Pulling back to look into her eyes with a tender smile, he made sure she was alright, before he turned to his sailors. "Smee! Liam and I will be in my quarters. You're responsible of reporting me whatever goes wrong on deck."

Lacing his fingers with Emma's, they both went below deck to find Liam and Henry in the middle of a discussion.

"I can assure you she doesn't know," said Henry, addressing Liam who was sitting by his side. "Or maybe she knows now, but it's too late, she can't find me, because the ship is protected."

"Tell us more about this, lad. This protection spell," said Killian while closing the door and going to sit with Emma on the two chairs facing them. "You said the Dark One cast it over the ship. How is it working?"

"Well, I can't explain exactly how magic works but I know that, with this spell, no one can find or even see the ship, except those who were aboard when the spell was cast. That's why you could still see it when you were on the docks. But I couldn't. I saw it only when I put my foot on the first step."

"Why would the Dark One do that?" asked Emma, trying her best to stay calm. There were so many questions she wanted to ask that it was difficult to hold herself back.

"To protect you."

"Why? Kid, that makes no sense, why would he do that?"

Henry shrugged. "I think he wants to protect you from Regina."

"Regina?" asked Liam.

"The Evil Queen. I don't know what's between her and Rumplestitskin but they don't get on very well. Maybe he just decided to be on your side, and protected you from her."

"Kid, how do you know about all of this? And how do you know I am…" Emma struggled with words. "How do you know you're my son?"

Emma gulped, still not considering this fact as true. Seeing how uneasy she was feeling, Killian softly placed his hand on her thigh under the table. Momentarily distracted, she took a breath and covered his hand with hers, before focusing back on the boy.

"He told me. I knew I had been adopted: she couldn't be my real mum, we're too much different; I believed my mum was someone better than her. Rumplestitskin then told me you were my mum, and he helped me find you."

"But if she and the Dark One hate each other, why did she let him spend so much time with you?" Emma was trying to arrange all the elements into a plausible story, a story which would wipe out any suspicion that all of this was a trap. But she didn't manage to create such a story. "Kid, that makes no sense."

"You know, I have a name? It's Henry. Rumplestitskin has always been there to watch over me and… She doesn't know I sometimes see him without her. He helped me find you, because he knew I wanted to be with you."

Henry turned to Killian, who was the one with the most welcoming expression; while Liam was frowning, obviously confused by all of this, Emma was staring at him, trying to detect any hint of lie in his words.

"How did you find Emma, in this Netherworld place?" asked Killian.

"This was something I meant to ask." Emma was putting much effort into keeping her voice soft. Killian brushed her thigh with his thumb, encouraging her to keep going like this. "At first I thought these were nightmares. Were you really there?"

"Yes," the boy replied, flashing her a smile. "All of this was real."

"Henry," she made the effort to call him by his name, "do you remember what you told me there? You said I was visiting this place because of the sleeping curse."

"That's right," he confirmed, smiling at her.

"Then, how did you happen to be there? Did she put you under a sleeping curse as well?" Her tone of voice had switched from suspicious to worried; worried that giving him up for adoption had led him to grow up with a mistreating Evil Queen as a mother.

"No, she didn't. I… It's complicated, it might take a while."

"If that's a tale you're willing to share, lad, take all the time you need."

"Well, it happened a few years ago, when I was old enough to realize she wasn't as good as she pretended to be. I wanted her to be good, but she wouldn't listen to me. When I told her she was bad to people, she asked what I was talking about. She played the innocent. Then, she said that everything she was doing, she was doing it for me, so that we could have a good life. When I told her she was the Evil Queen, she replied she was my mother, so I asked her to prove it: I told her to stop hurting everyone. But she said she couldn't do that."

"Lad, has she ever hurt you?"

Emma looked at Killian, surprised by how protective he had just sounded, before turning to Henry again.

"No, not me. But everyone else around. She denied she was being bad, but I had been investigating on my own. I knew what she had done. And I knew what her current plans were: she had invited someone for dinner, for sure her next victim, and had prepared the dessert herself. We have a cook, she usually never goes to the kitchen. What she didn't know was that I was aware about all of this, and that I was hiding in my back the turnover she had prepared. My guess was that she had used some of her poisoned apples, but the only way to be sure was to try it. When I told her to stop hurting everyone and she said she couldn't, I said I had to do this. She didn't know what I was talking about until she saw me taking a bite of the turnover. I didn't know what it'd do to me, but I didn't care; if she didn't want to be good, I didn't want to keep living with her as my mother. She didn't have time to stop me: I fell asleep."

"Kid, that was reckless," Emma commented.

"Very daring," added Liam. "Very few people are brave enough to go so far in order to prove a point."

"How did you wake up?" asked Killian. "Is there something else than the true love's kiss?"

"No." At this moment, Henry looked down at his hands. "She pulled me out of this cursed sleep with a simple kiss on the cheek."

Emma opened wide eyes; the thought this woman who had locked her up in a tower for weeks and put her under a cursed sleep, who had ripped out hearts and who was regaled by others' suffering, was able to love was unbelievable.

"So that's how you got an access to Netherworld," said Killian, keeping track of the conversation.

"Yes. I've started having those nightmares. One morning, I woke up with a burn on my arm. That's when she decided to take me to Rumplestitskin. Because of course, she knows how to cast a curse, but she never cared about the side effects; until I was the one suffering from them. Rumplestitskin couldn't stop the nightmares, but he gave me this." Henry looked down and pulled out a necklace from under his shirt. "With this necklace, I am able to control what I'm doing there. I've used it for months. Every night, I was going back to Netherworld. Being in control made the trips there less scary. But then, Rumplestitskin came back with something else: this ring."

Henry held out his right hand above the table to show the three of them the signet ring inlaid with a red stone.

"Hey, lad, look at this," Killian said, showing Henry his own hand. "I almost have the same one."

"But mine is magic," he replied instantly, looking at the pirate with a playful smirk.

"Point taken, mine is not."

Killian placed his hand back on Emma's thigh. All he wanted was for both her and her son to feel comfortable and, considering the smile on the boy's face, at least one of them did.

"With this ring," Henry went on with his story, "I didn't need to go back to Netherworld. I could sleep without having those nightmares."

"Wow, this ring stops the nightmares?" asked Emma and the boy nodded. Putting all the elements together, she frowned, and put much effort again in keeping her voice soft as she asked, "Why were you in Netherworld just a few days ago, then?"

"The nightmares come back if I remove the ring. That's the last part of this story, I guess. Rumplestitskin had told me you were living in another realm but that, someday, you'd come here. I asked if I could meet you in your realm, but he said it would be complicated and dangerous, so I've been waiting. Then, I've heard of you at the castle. All I wanted was to find you, but escaping wasn't so easy. Rumplestitskin said we had to wait for the right moment. And this right moment happened days ago. His plan was genius! He said that, since you had been under a sleeping curse, you would probably travel to Netherworld in your sleep. So I took off my ring. And I found you there," he said with a smile which she was unable to give him back. "I knew what I had to tell you: Rumplestitskin told me you were likely to come back to the Enchanted Forest and that, from the place where you were before he cast the protection spell, an archipelago was on your way. Once I had told you about the island, Rumplestitskin said he would watch this place: because of the spell, he couldn't know where you were, but as soon as you walked on the docks, he was able to see you. He appeared in my room to say that it was time, that you were on the island, and he sent me there. That's how I found you."

Henry finished his story with his eyes locked on Emma.

"Quite a tale you had there!" commented Liam.

"And now you're one of us!" said Killian on a welcoming tone. "How about we make you visit your new place?"

"Yeah!"

Henry smiled brightly and Killian led the three of them out of the quarters. While keeping Emma's hand in his, he showed the boy the important parts of the ship. While Liam sometimes added a few comments to Killian's explanations, Emma remained silent, still trying to get used to the idea he was her son, the baby she had given up for adoption. Now that he had told his story about how he had found her, now that she knew more about him, she had even more questions.

"How do you control these?" asked Henry when they were on deck.

"The sails?" Killian asked after following his eyes. A crooked smile tugged at his lips. "I tell you what, lad: if you're interested in sailing, we'll teach you!"

"Awesome!"

"But right now, there is more important to be done. We have yet to find you a place to get your rest. In the meantime, feel free to go wherever you want. Everything which is on this ship, you are free to use. And if anyone tells you anything, tell them you have the captain's permission."

With a tilt of the head, Killian indicated him the rest of the ship and, with a bright smile, Henry left. Liam departed as well, going back to his duties.

"How do you do that?" asked Emma.

"How do I do what?" Watching Henry go to the stern of the ship, Killian then turned to Emma.

"How are you so good with him when I'm being so bad?"

"Love, you've been amazing with him."

"That's not true. How could I be amazing when I don't even know what to say to him?"

Killian softly cupped her cheek and kept looking into her eyes.

"How about you start seeing the positive aspects instead of focusing on the bad ones?" Seeing her look of confusion, he went on. "Think of how, at first, you were suspicious of every word he was saying, which I totally understand, and of how, as he was telling his story, you softened."

"I was trying to keep my voice soft because I found no hint of a lie in everything he had said. And I realized it was surely not easy for him either."

"And how would you call that? Love, can't you see? You're totally proving my point: you've just met him, and you're already learning how to trust him, and caring about his well-being." Softly pulling her to him, he whispered in her ear. "You are amazing, and nothing you can say will convince me you're not."

"What will happen now? You heard what he said: she woke him up from that cursed sleep. It means that she truly loves him, even if he thinks she's only pretending to. And now, he's with us. She will try to get him back. Killian, are you sure you want to have him on board? We're even more in danger now that he's here."

"Love, I won't make your boy leave the ship just because that's the safe option. With this protection spell, it seems like, as long as we keep sailing, she can't find us." His hand slipped in her neck and he leant his forehead against hers. "We will find a way."