Maze

Chapter Four: Find Your Hope

A/N: I have just noticed I obsessively describe Hook's eyes. Not that I'm now going to describe them less, I'm sure Emma is as hypnotized by them as us Hookers are. On that note, let's begin.

Hook didn't speak to her much after that. Emma would gently try to coax him into conversation by asking him about Neverland or his past, topics completely unrelated to the fact that she had (possibly) sacrificed herself for him. It was after an hour of walking (Emma was growing accustomed to time) that she finally gave up.

"Are you really that mad at me?" she demanded.

"Of course I bloody am," he snapped, piercing her with a fiery gaze.

She sighed impatiently, "Well, for your information, that's not normally how it works out when someone saves someone. Normally the saved person is at least a bit grateful that-"

"I didn't want you to save me. I wanted you to live."

"Well that's tough because I did save you. So suck it up. And anyway, if we're fast enough we can get out before I run out of time," she said offhandedly, trying to avoid the phrase 'starve to death'.

He came to a halt with the snap of his shoes, grabbed her shoulders, spun her around to face him and held her there. "We'd be lucky to get out of here in a month, Emma. We've been walking for a week and we're not any closer to that fucking forest. Do you know how much time you have? If we assume you still won't need water, you have three weeks before your parents lose you and your son loses you. Three weeks before I lose you and I can't-" He stopped himself. Let go of her and sighed, it was sad and broken.

She wanted to ask, 'You can't what?' but she couldn't bring herself to cause more grief.

"Why couldn't you just let me go, Emma?" he whispered and for the first time her name didn't bother her.

"I..."

She could see the tears gloss over his eyes, completing the ocean illusion. He pasted a fake grin over his mouth, "I know, I know. You heroes and your saving people complex. That's why they call you the Savoir right?"

Annoyance crept into her veins. "Do you really think that's why I saved you? Just because it was the right thing to do?" she accused.

"Yes," he replied bluntly, sending her another cool stare.

"I knew perfectly well what making that deal would mean, Hook. I knew even if we were ever going to find a way out of here, it was going to take a lot more than three weeks. I knew I was putting seeing my family again on the line but I chose it anyway." She felt her heart hammer in her chest. "I have just sacrificed everything for you and… And I don't know what that means, Hook because I'm not the kind of person who does that. I don't trust people, I don't let people in and certainly do not willingly sacrifice myself for a man like you."

He tilted his head, "A man like me? What's that supposed to mean?"

She nibbled her lip, "You asked me, when we first met, if I'd ever been in love." She paused, watching his expression. The hard closed off Hook suddenly melted as he realised just what she was about to do.

She took a shaky breath and then she told him everything, from being abandoned on the roadside to saving Henry. Sometimes she would falter but he made no move towards her, treating her like the scared animal she was.

"…And then I met you the 'scared blacksmith-' she managed to give him a pointed look and he returned it with a chuckle and a flash of his beautiful smile. "-and you know how it played out from there…"

She paused.

"So there's a point to me telling you this, as you might of gathered… Neal ruined me. He took whatever hope I had left and left me with nothing but hate for myself." She raised her green eyes and shivered at the storm they met. "I know you're a man who is capable of so much love because of how long you have tried to avenge Milah." He breathed in sharply. "But I also know you are a man who has ran before, who thinks of himself which makes you capable of leaving someone if it meant you were safe… And that's why I left you on that beanstalk. I didn't want to give you the chance to leave me because I felt something between us and it scared me. Then in Storybrooke you nearly left me there to die-"

"I came back."

A small smile whispered across her face, "Yes. And that's what made it even harder. I had labelled you as a villain so I could avoid you like the coward I am. But then you just had to go and fuck everything up. Because now I know you'd throw yourself in danger for me and I don't think I could handle someone caring for me that much because I will just fall so impossibly for you... That's why I push you away and pretend like I don't care because I can't do that. I can't risk it, not again."

Silence hummed between them.

"So what changed?" he asked. She frowned in confusion. "Why are you telling me this? Why have you decided to open up to me and trust me if you're so scared?"

"When I was deciding whether or not to make that deal… As soon as I thought of leaving you to die, every single fiber in my being screamed against it as if it physically hurt to lose you. And that means something. Something I can't ignore anymore."

More silence.

"That's all I can give you now, Hook. I'm not going to suddenly be totally different but I'm going to try and I hope you understand that." She couldn't hold his pressing gaze any longer, she dropped her eyes.

"I understand," he confirmed, his voice soft, "I know how it feels to be scared of love. Rumpelstiltskin crushed Milah's heart in his hands just because she loved me. I spent hundreds of years not only hating him but myself for leading her to her death. I let myself fall into darkness, convinced that nothing good would ever come of me if people died because they loved me."

He took a cautious step towards her.

"You scare me too, Emma. Much like you, I can't bear to lose another person who has come to mean so much to me. And that's why I was so angry with you because your just another woman who has unfortunately cared about me and will have to face the consequences of that."

"Once again I'm seeing myself in you. You're not a monster," she assured him, her gaze locked in his again as she summoned all the courage she had left, "We're one in the same. Bad things have happened to us and we've reacted to them badly but we can't live our lives hating ourselves. That's what finding my son taught me; that even out of the worst situations you can find things you will treasure the rest of your life. Neal broke me but because of him I got Henry and it's because of Henry I have a home, a family and a reason to stop hating myself and start believing I can have a happy ending."

A pause.

"You just need to find your hope," she encouraged gently.

His eyes swam with a dark passion that burned and chilled her all at the same time. He took another step to her, bringing him so close she could feel his breath on her lips. "Be my hope, Emma," he murmured, brushing his fingers along her face.

"I…" She was thrown off by the sudden turn. This was not what she had expected.

"Don't pull away. I'll give you your time, love. But you can trust me, you know you can trust me." She swallowed, her emotions a blur. He eyed her expectantly.

She breathed in deeply.

"Okay."

They had only been walking a little while before they reached their next obstacle. The silhouette of a man stood in the middle of the corridor. As his features began to rise out of the murky darkness, Emma noticed that his thin mouth was stretched into forbidding snarl and his small dark eyes were flickering between the both of them. They came to a gradual halt, leaving a wide berth between him and them.

Hook leant over and whispered in her ear, "Assuming he is not aided by magic I could easily take him down."

"That's a dangerous assumption to make," Emma hissed.

He pretended not to hear her as he turned to the man. "Why are you here?" he demanded confidently.

"I have to stop you," the man responded expressionlessly. Hook raised an eyebrow.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" the pirate asked, smirking coldly.

"I have to stop you," came the answer.

Hook chuckled humourlessly, "Do you really think you could take on the both of us?"

"I have to stop you."

Emma saw the annoyance flare through Hook and before he could even take a step towards the man, she grabbed his arm. "Don't. You're not getting anything out of him."

"So what to you propose we do? Turn the other way? I can hear the birds from the forest, it's straight ahead."

Emma smiled mischievously, "I said you're not going to get anything out of him. I didn't say we couldn't take him together. We just have to be careful, we don't know what this guy is packing." She paused to shoot the man a wary glance. "Clearly we can't reason with him. Something not right up here," she said tapping her head. "So we're going to have to go with good old fashioned brutality."

Hook studied her for a moment, "Would I be right in guessing the 'good old fashioned brutality' isn't anything new?"

She grinned, almost sheepishly, "Well, I was a bounty hunter for a couple of years."

He chuckled, "You just get better and better the more I get to know you." Emma ducked her head, ashamed at how easily he could make her feel like a blushing school girl.

She was suddenly sobered by Hook touching her arm, squeezing it and silently saying, 'Let's go.' They had only taken a couple paces when the shadows shifted and the man became two. In sync, Hook and Emma froze.

"Interesting development," Emma acknowledged after a long silence.

"Very interesting," Hook agreed.

Another silence before they turned to each other, silently asking, 'Do we keep going?' There was always a chance if they got any closer more would appear.

"Well," she began, "It's either keep going or turn back and probably never get out of here." A pause. "Personally, I prefer the first option."

Hook's eyes shone with admiration, "Couldn't agree with you more, lass."

They continued walking. The walk was unnervingly long as the two clones stared unflinchingly at the pair of them. Emma felt the adrenalin pump through her encouragingly. She closed her mouth into a determined grimace and noticed Hook had done the same except his had a glimmer of a grin around the edges.

She planted her gaze onto the clone she was now marching towards, her hands closing into fists. Then they came to life, snarling and yelling as they charged towards Emma and Hook.

Her instincts kicked in and her fist flew towards the oncoming opponent, slamming into his jaw. Without even taking a moment to wince, he had pulled something out of the air and smashed it hard into her temple. A searing pain tore through her sight of vision as she stumbled, surprised by the inhumane strength of the clone. But she couldn't stop.

She grabbed him and threw him towards the wall, head first. He fell to the floor. Though only after a few moments did he give a breathy laugh and look up at her, grinning maddeningly. He wasn't even scratched. Fear pulsed through her head or was that pain? She gingerly felt the sticky blood on her face just moments before he came at her again, with another weapon.

Emma acted quickly, snatching his wrist and wrenching the object from his grip. A dagger. She leapt out the way of his next blow, coming back to back with Hook. A small ounce of comfort swept through her at his touch. That was until she felt his uneven breathing.

"You were right, they do have magic," he said jokingly. He was actually fucking joking about this.

She opened her mouth to speak but Hook was suddenly gone and her attacker was charging at her. She thrust the dagger into his outstretched hand. He howled in pain and with a thudding heart realised it was only the extremes which were going to cause damage... Another test. Was she willing to kill a man?

His dark eyes slid up to her. Fury and hate shone out of them like lighthouses.

As much as she hated this man and as much as she was eager to cause him pain... she couldn't kill him. She couldn't kill anyone, not even someone brain washed to do the same to her.

But that's when she heard Hook cry out in pain.

Emotions consumed her and she lost control. The corridor lit up with a blinding bright light. She felt it burn from inside her and out towards her enemy and the clone leering victoriously at Hook. She felt their presence lessen as their screams ripped through the open air. She felt suffocated by it all.

Then it was gone. And so was the pain in her head. And the clones. All the remained was two piles of ash.

Did she do that?

"Emma," came Hook's hoarse voice, wrecked with awe, "What was that?"

Her arms snaked around herself, physically trying to hold together her emotions. "Magic," she uttered. "I killed them with magic."

Thank you for your support towards this fic. You are my hope *wink wink*

BTW: I've written a few of the most emotional scenes of the fic already and it H-U-R-T-S. I can't wait to show them to you *cheeky grin*

Let me know what you thought; was it feelsy enough for you?