Disclaimer: I do not in any way own Once Upon A Time. ABC, Disney, the amazing A&E and whoever else have that distinction. No profit is being made, and no copywrite infringement in intended.

AN: We're still in "Dark Hollow," only now Pan's shadow is trapped in a coconut and it's time for another quiet moment. Emma's opening up a bit faster than even I expected, but that's just how the characters in my head are going. Expect more rewritten scenes from this point on, rather than them just being skipped over. Thanks to everyone for the reviews and encouragement, I'm glad that this is being enjoyed.

Stars

by Lady Callista

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"The darkest nights produce the brightest stars."

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Chapter 6:

"We need to stop and rest for a few hours." Emma declared as Neal tripped over his own feet for the third time in less than an hour, catching himself on a tree even as his other hand kept the coconut curled carefully against his stomach.

"I'm fine, just..."

"You're not fine." Emma huffed, turning to include Hook in her glare when she heard him chuckle. "Neither of you are." She'd only heard the pirate trip once, but she'd glanced back at him a few other times and seen the glazed over look in his eyes, the look that said he was only still awake because he was forcing himself to be, and Neal looked even worse.

"Now that we've a way off the island..."

"You're both dead on your feet, probably from almost having your shadows ripped from your bodies." Emma snapped. She hadn't noticed it at all in the beginning, too busy silently raging at the way they'd fought over her like children, but as the hours long trek slowly progressed, she'd noticed both men dragging as if they hadn't slept in days.

While everything in her rebelled at the thought of a delay, of waiting even a few more hours to get to Henry, she knew that both men were basically useless at this point, and she would need both of them to get her son back.

They both tried to argue further, and in the end Emma simply sat down and glared up at them with a snapped, "I'll stand watch. The sooner you both stop arguing the sooner we'll be moving again."

To her surprise it was Hook who gave in first, sinking to the ground with a murmured, "As you wish."

Neal's eyes snapped from the other man to her at the words, and she saw the tick in his jaw when he noticed the blush staining her cheeks. But he sat without further objection. Moments later both men were sound asleep, and Emma was positive that their exhaustion came from what had happened back in the Hollow, or there was no way it would have been that easy to convince them to stop.

She plotted as she sat, working out as many details as she could on getting Henry back even as she listened carefully for any sign of other people. She worked hard to focus on the plan she was forming, needing to keep the focus on that to stop her thoughts from drifting to the two men curled up on the forest floor.

Hook shifted in his sleep them, murmuring something as he turned to his back, and Emma couldn't stop her gaze from wandering over him, remembering the absolute terror that had flowed through her when she'd seen him in the shadow's grasp. Regina's voice echoed through her head then, telling her that her magic was connected to her emotions, and Emma tried really hard to not think about what that meant. She'd thought of Neal as well, of course she had, but it had been Hook's pained voice telling her to flee and save herself that had sparked her magic, because she couldn't do this without him. She had to light the damn candle, and the magic had bubbled up as easily as if she had been learning since birth.

His face was softer in sleep, the centuries of pain and loneliness hidden behind the same lids that hide the most expressive eyes she had ever known. She hated the cliche that the eyes were the window to the soul, but dammit if it wasn't true in his case. Her eyes were tracing his lips, remembering their softness and the surprising sweetness under the passion, when he shifted again, seeming more restless this time.

When he began to mumble again she moved closer, her intent to wake him from what seemed to be a nightmare, when she caught the fact that what he was murmuring was her name. She froze with her hand halfway to his shoulder, a brief flash of heat going through her as she wondered if it was a nightmare she'd be waking him from, or something else. The thought that he might be dreaming about her in a different way, a way she'd never admit she herself had dreamed about more than once, was surprisingly thrilling. His arm twitched then, hook coming closer than she was comfortable with to her leg, and she reached out to wake him the instant his eyes snapped open, the name that fell from his lips as he woke not her own, but one she'd heard him speak only once. A name she knew was inked into his forearm.

Hook woke with a growl, images of Emma dying in his arms as Milah had following him from his dreams, and he lunged at the crocodile above him, rolling to pin the body underneath his as his hook rose to the neck of... of Emma... who despite their position raised both her hands to cup his cheeks, her eyes meeting his steadily. He could see her lips moving, and with what seemed a rush of sound he heard her voice as well, repeating softly that it was just a dream.

His eyes widened in horror at the tiny trickle of blood on the side of her neck, and he jerked his left arm back, shakily rolling off of her and bringing his hand up to rub at his face. Shame flooded through him, and he couldn't bring himself to look at her as he whispered his apologies for hurting her.

"I'm fine." Emma whispered back, her eyes flicking over to Neal who seemed to have slept through the slight disturbance. She shifted closer to him, hand resting lightly on his shoulder. "Hook, I'm okay." She reached out after only a slight hesitation, her other hand carefully grasping the curve of his hook. "It was just a dream."

"A dream mixed with a memory." His voice was still rough with sleep, and he spoke without thinking, his eyes sliding shut again as he heard her soft gasp. He could feel the warmth of her hand on his shoulder, and his memories flashed back to the last time he'd had someone try to comfort him after a nightmare. Milah's face swam back into his memory, the spark gone from her eyes, and with a gasp of his own he opened his eyes again, forcing himself to meet her soft gaze. She was here, she wasn't dead. And he knew he'd die before he let anything happen to her.

"You were saying my name." Emma breathed, the hand on his shoulder sliding lightly down his arm, her fingers gliding back and forth over his forearm. "And then you said hers."

He stiffened, and Emma drew back quickly, mumbling that he should sleep more. She had just started to rise when he gripped her hand, and she could hear the vulnerability in his voice as he asked softly, "I know you've lost people you cared for, love, but has anyone literally died in your arms?"

Her gaze went automatically to the bootlace still wrapped around her wrist, and she fingered it as she nodded her head briefly.

"Did you love him?"

There was an odd note in his voice, but no jealousy, and it stopped Emma from snapping that it was none of his business, stopped her from pushing him away or freezing him out. Instead she met his gentle gaze, and the understanding in his cobalt eyes caused her to settle back down on the ground next to him and answer, "I was starting to."

"You guessed back when we first met that the crocodile took Milah from me, but there's more to the story than that." He looked over at Neal, not really surprised that the other man was sleeping through their conversation, given the bone-deep exhaustion that he could still feel trying to tug him back down. But he was much more willing to deal with the exhaustion than the nightmares that would come if he slept again.

"When I told you the other day that I was partially responsible for Bae being stuck here, I didn't just mean that because I fished him out of the sea when the shadow first dropped him here. Pan thought he was the boy he was looking for, and threatened to kill my crew off one by one if I didn't hand him over." Hook whispered, pushing himself up to lean against a tree, stiffening in shock before relaxing as she leaned into him the smallest bit, the warmth of her pressed against his side from shoulder to hip. "I wasn't going to, I planned on fighting Pan, but..."

"Why?" She couldn't help interrupting gently. "Why would you fight for..."

Neal shifted in his sleep as her voice rose slightly, and Hook's fingers came up to press lightly against her lips. Even though she knew the gesture was to silence her she couldn't help but press the barest suggestion of a kiss into the pads of his fingers. They trembled and withdrew, and she heard his breath catch as she caught his hand in hers, lacing their fingers together. When he lifted an eyebrow and tilted his head in the opposite direction, she nodded and rose with him to move a short distance away. Close enough they could still keep watch, but far enough away that their soft voices wouldn't wake him.

But the break had broken his momentum, and Hook tried to remind himself that he was normally very articulate as he tried to find the words to explain to her.

She sensed him struggling and didn't push, giving him the same patience he had always given her as they settled side by side again, their hands still linked. When he finally resumed speaking, his voice was so low she had to lean in to hear him.

"Before I could explain the situation, Baelfire found something among my possessions that turned him against me. He found a portrait of my Milah."

Emma pulled back from him, needing to see his face, trying to figure out where he was going with this.

"Bae can hear the children crying at night, love, just as we can. I don't know the exact circumstances of how the crocodile abandoned him, the lad only told me that his father chose power over him, and it had resulted in him falling alone into a portal to another world, where the shadow had caught him. But years before that, his mother abandoned him." Hook broke eye contact with her then, staring down at where her fingers intertwined with his as he whispered, "She ran away with a dashing pirate captain."

Her fingers tightened and her breath caught as she realized what he was saying. His Milah, the woman he had loved so deeply he had dedicated centuries to finding a way to avenge her, had been Gold's wife. His first and only love had been Neal's mother. For a moment she tried to wrap her head around Neverland's no ageing perk, and what it really meant that the pirate currently attempting to woo her (his words, and while she had snarked back at him her heart had done a little bit of leaping) had been in love with Neal's mother. She tried to look at it from his perspective, after all he'd known this since she'd told him Henry was Neal's son, and it was no less bizarre. He was persueing a woman who under different circumstances could have been his daughter-in-law.

And that was just too much for her to process, because while it sounded weird in her head, it somehow didn't matter when she was staring down at their joined hands, surprised by how right it felt as she leaned back into his side. It should have mattered, but it was just one more thing in her now crazy life that she couldn't examine too closely. Just like the rest of Henry's family tree. "That's why you say it was your fault. Maybe if she hadn't abandoned them..."

"Aye, Swan." Hook said softly. "And while it's true she asked me to take her, to help her escape as she said, that may not be what I informed her husband." He dropped his eyes from hers again, unable to be less than completely honest with her even through the shame and guilt swimming through him as he remembered what he'd done. "I implied that we were kidnapping her, and that she would be shared among my crew. I offered him a sword, and told him to fight for her, as if a cowardly cripple would have any chance against me in a fight."

Emma's eyes snapped back to his face, but his tone was matter-of-fact rather than bragging, and she couldn't really say she disagreed with how that fight would have gone. "And then he became the Dark One."

Hook nodded, still not looking up at her. "He confronted us one day, and the short story is that we had a magic bean he wanted, but he also wanted revenge on her for leaving. On me for taking her. He crushed her heart, leaving her to die in my arms, but left me alive to know the pain of living without her. He took my hand because he thought it contained the bean, but I'd hidden it elsewhere. And I used that bean to go to Neverland, in order to live long enough to find a way to kill him."

"You said she asked you to take her away, but you can't have known each other long." Emma questioned softly, hearing the shame in his voice. She understood now exactly what he had meant when he said he was part of the reason Neal had gotten stuck in Neverland, for if his mother hadn't run off things could have been vastly different. But that just didn't add up for her.

"A few months, we came into port about once a week at that point, and she'd always meet me at the tavern. I didn't know when I first met her that she was married, and I backed off once I found out. But she came back to me, and well, at that point I can't say I much cared if she was married. If she was unhappy enough to pursue another, well, then..."

"If she was that unhappy, she would have found someone else if you had turned her down."

"Well, that's a sure way to bruise a man's ego, Swan." His voice was light again, the depth of emotion from his story gone, but when she met his eyes she could see the mask that had dropped into place. Although he didn't say that he disagreed with her.

"I think your ego is big enough to take it." His eyebrows rose at her flat statement, and her eyes flashed a warning that stopped him from speaking whatever innuendo she could see floating through his mind. But she could see the hurt hiding behind the mask he had donned, and offered softly, "I'm not saying she didn't fall in love with you later, I don't doubt what you had with her, Hook, all I'm saying is that love takes time. You have to open up to someone, trust them, and there's no way a few months is enough for that."

"Tale is your parents fell in love in a day." He responded immediately, and she caught an oddly wistful look in his eyes as he whispered the next, his cadence changed just enough that she suspected he was quoting something. "The truest magic of first love is our ignorance that it can end."

Emma's eyes flicked automatically to Neal, and how her heart had broken when he'd left her. She knew what Hook was saying though, it was easier to fall in love when your only experience with it wasn't betrayal and abandonment. "And once you know how much it hurts..."

"You have to be brave enough to risk it again." Hook husked. "Life is full of both good and bad things, love, and you can't let the fear of loss keep you isolated. You can't let the bad make you forget the good. You're the one that told me everyone deserves a second chance, that told me to be part of something rather than be safely alone. I wish you could take that advice yourself."

"I love Henry." She said at once.

His smile was soft, and she could see in his eyes that he knew she was deliberately avoiding his point. "You know that's not my meaning, but you asked me not to speak of it until we found Henry, so I'll apologize. There's just something about you, love, that makes me feel I can speak to you of anything. That makes me want to. And it's been, well, it's been a very long time since I had that."

"Hook, we barely know each other."

He smiled softly at that, the first real smile she had seen since he woke. "I may not know your favorite flower or color, or what you like to do when you have a moment of leisure, but I know you, Emma. And I know I'm as much an open book as I once called you. At least I'm trying to be."

Emma could only stare at him as his fingers reached out hesitantly, skimming over her cheek before tucking some hair behind her ear. He was looking at her once again with that mix of admiration and dedication that made her heart lurch, and she knew she would lose the point if she tried to argue it with him. Because despite the number of times she'd pushed him away, he'd always come back, always supported her and encouraged her when it mattered. He'd opened himself up to her fearlessly, somehow finding all the ways to bring her walls down a brick at a time. And she was starting to be more excited than scared by how deeply and easily they understood each other.

She smiled at him softly as his fingers trailed down her hair, gasping lightly when his knuckles brushed lightly over the top of her breast as his fingers toyed with a curl. He leaned in when she didn't pull away from him, brushing a feather light kiss against her cheek. "We'll find your lad, and then we'll talk more. You know my wishes, love, but you also know I'll abide by whatever you choose. I only want you happy."

A jolt of heat went through her at the sweet sincerity in his voice, and she whispered his name as he pulled back, and he hesitated just long enough for her to turn her head, brushing her lips across his lightly, a whisper of a touch that was gone before he could even react. "I'm glad I don't have to do this alone."

Hook took a deep breath as she breathed the words across his lips, his mind flashing back to the other day when he'd told her of Liam, and how he didn't know how he'd had survived without him, how much he was in awe of her for getting through everything life had thrown at her on her own. "As am I." He couldn't help but chase her lips when she pulled back from him, wanting more than the brief taste she'd just teased him with.

"Hook." Emma said his name in warning as he leaned into her, but was unable to stop her breath from hitching when his hand came up to skim over her cheek again, which still burned from his kiss.

"I dreamed of your death, and I just, I just need... I'm sorry, love, I..."

His eyes skidded away nervously, and Emma took a deep breath before reaching out, capturing his hand as he started to withdraw it and bringing it back to her cheek. She had read the pain in his eyes before he turned away, and instinctively offered him the same comfort he had shown her over the past week.

His eyes snapped back to hers, the pain bleeding to something hotter, and his eyes flicked down to her lips again as he whispered, "I'll be patient, love, I ask only this one boon."

She half smiled at that, because even after all the time she'd spent with him it still sometimes took her a moment to figure out what he was saying. But the smile bloomed fully as his eyes twinkled at her, and she realized what he was asking for. She leaned her cheek into his touch for a long second before sliding her body closer to his, her fingers sliding to the back of his neck to kiss him softly. The kiss was the near opposite of their first, but no less earth-shattering for the tenderness of it.

She couldn't speak the words, but she tried to convey them with her kiss, deepening it briefly as she felt his hand glide lightly down her side, avoiding her breast carefully but coming to rest on her hip, his thumb teasing the bare slice of skin where her shirt had ridden up. She played her fingernails over the back of his neck, deepening the kiss further as she felt him tremble for her, his hand tightening briefly on her hip before he gentled his lips, the kiss sliding back to the sweet promise it had started with.

Emma skimmed her fingers lightly down the side of his face as she pulled back, seeing the exhaustion behind the tenderness in his eyes, and said softly, "You should try to sleep a little more." She gave him a look when he seemed about to protest, saying softly, "I've gotten better at keeping track of time by the sun, like you showed me. We've got about an hour yet before we have to head out in order to be to Tinkerbell's before sunset."

He sighed, but knew better by this point than to argue with her, especially as he knew she was right. He wasn't any good to her or Henry when he could barely keep his eyes open. He shifted on the ground, preparing to stand, but she caught his hand and used her other to pat her lap, her eyes shy but sincere. "It helps with the nightmares, not being alone. At least it did the few times I..."

She trailed off with a shrug, trying to downplay the hugeness of the step they'd just taken, but he saw the nervousness behind the flickering wall and knew what she was doing. Rejection was so much easier to take if you acted like it didn't matter. Although he'd completely failed at showing her his feelings if she ever thought he would reject her. Or she had been hurt more deeply and more often than even he had realized.

"It does help." He whispered, not giving her time to second guess her decision. He slid down onto his side beside her, resting his head on her thigh and sighing when her fingers came up to play with his hair. "Tell me a story, Swan." Her finger froze, and he sighed as he soothed, "I'm not asking for painful secrets, love, just the lovely sound of your voice to carry me into dreams."

She blushed, she couldn't help it, but after a moment her fingers began to trail soothingly through his hair again as she tried to think what to talk about. She'd never really had anyone to tell her stories, didn't know any the way a mother should. Then she thought of the stories he'd been telling her of the stars, and tried to remember the few that she knew. As always, one stood out.

"Do you know a constellation named Cygnus?" When he responded that he didn't, Emma went on softly, "It means the swan, and it was one of the only ones I could always find." She couldn't remember the names, it had been too long, but she continued stroking his hair as she told the story of the prideful demi-god who'd been unable to control the sun, and been shot out of the sky, his bones scattered up and down a river. She felt his body relaxing as she continued the story, telling of a brother's grief as he gathered the bones for burial, and the respect of the other gods for the act. They'd made him into a swan when he died, placing him in the sky. She was silent for a moment as she finished, thinking back on the story. She hadn't thought of it in years, and wondered now why they had turned him into a swan of all things.

"Because swans are a symbol of love."

She jerked slightly, she hadn't realized that she'd asked the question out loud, nor that he was still awake to answer it. "They are?"

"Aye, and also all that is light and good." His voice was slightly slurred with sleep, and he murmured that was why he called her Swan as he slipped away.

Her heart skipped a beat at his soft words, and she knew deep in her heart that she'd already made her choice.

TBC...