Part 9


After a while, they arrived in front of a giant beanstalk and Hook explained what needed to be done. Only one could come up with him and a giant was waiting up there.

Emma wanted to go and do something concrete to go back home but she saw this as the perfect opportunity to help her sister, for once.

Bella had always been afraid of doing dangerous things, she would always let others take the risks and Emma could see this as an excuse, knowing that Bella would go up there for her and on the way, she would have to get to know Hook. Emma explained her plan to everyone else while Bella was aside, untying the pirate and giving him his hook back.

"So, which one of you lovely ladies will go up there with me? Come now, fight it out. And don't be afraid to, you know, really get into it." He said with a teasing smile.

"Is everything a joke to you?" Aurora shook her head.

"Bella will do it." Emma declared.

"Me? Why?" Bella protested.

Emma got closer to her and told her:

"Bella, this is your chance to do something dangerous for once, face your fears. Plus, it will give you a lot of alone time with Hook to try and convince him not to kill your father..."

"But why don't you go? You're much braver than I am..." Bella tried.

"We both know that it's not true. The only reason I appear braver is because you make me braver. You've done so much for me Bella, this is my chance to do something for you. Trust me, please. You have to do it." Emma whispered to her.

"Fine... But you know how clumsy I get, if I end up falling down and breaking my neck, it's on you." Bella warned her with humor in a louder voice.

"Ah, I was hoping it would be you." Hook smiled at Bella when she agreed and walked toward him.

She got closer to him and as he put the leather protection on her wrist he added:

"By the way, don't worry, I won't let you fall. I hate seeing pretty lady die when it can be avoided."

"Now I feel so much better..." Bella rolled her eyes, trying to hide her blush and the real joy behind the knowledge that he had her back.

Before they left, Mulan gave them a small bag with a sleeping powder in it so they could get rid of the giant with more ease.

Bella nervously glanced at the giant beanstalk in front of her.

"Don't worry Bells. Don't look down, always make sure you're secure before to move ahead and take your time. You can do this. Remember than you're in control until you start panicking. Panic is your enemy." Emma advised her.

"Don't you worry, the Lady is safe with me." Hook intervened.

"I don't know if that makes me feel any better..." Snow said.

"Come on, let's go before I chicken out of this." Bella sighted and started the climb with Hook by her side.

.

As soon as Bella and Hook started climbing, Mulan started showing Emma some good sword fighting moves while Snow helped Aurora sleep and control her dreams so she could navigate freely in this dream world. The two women got to know each other while they fought and quickly became good friends who could trust each other.

Emma glanced at the princess who had her head on Snow's lap and she couldn't help a small wave of jealousy coming over her but it left as quickly as it came. She knew that Aurora wasn't trying to take her mother from her and she knew that she didn't need her mother that way. There was no point of being jealous of this. Plus, Snow was probably enjoying taking care of someone who needed her for once.

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"You're not a big talker are you? Or am I just making you nervous?" Hook asked Bella.

"I've never been much of a talker and I'm trying to concentrate on not falling down. The fall is a bit too much for me to survive it. Nothing to do with you." She replied, half lying.

"There's something about you Miss Swan... I can't explain it... I think you're hiding something from me... You and your friends... I think that what you're hiding is about you..." He said as they kept on climbing.

"Why are you so interested?" She asked him, her heart jumping at the thought that he might care about her.

"I don't know, you're intriguing." he shrugged his shoulders.

He couldn't explain his fascination with her. He wanted to know everything there was to know about her, he wanted to know why she was crying earlier and he wanted to see her smile happily. He had never been this interested about someone before, not even with Milah and he couldn't help but feel something different when she was near, like the hope of being happy again some day soon. She made him feel like he'd be able to forget about Milah one day and it scared him as much as it pleased him. If this was love, maybe concentrating on his revenge might be why he didn't feel more, maybe if he stopped thinking about Milah he would fall in love with Bella but wouldn't that be betraying his old love? He couldn't do that, not until his revenge was complete. Killing the Dark One was his goal and he couldn't give up on it, not now.

"I don't know if I should tell you." She blushed.

"You definitely should love. Confessing is good for the soul." He smiled at her flirtatiously and she had to remember to hold on to the Beanstalk tighter.

"How about this: if we managed to get to the compass and to go back down alive, then I'll tell you my secret."

"That's a deal, love." he agreed.

"What could be so bad anyway? We have a deal. Unless you tell me that you're Rumpelstiltskin in disguise, there's nothing you could tell me that could jeopardise our plan." He reassured her.

"Yeah, right..." she chuckled humorlessly while climbing higher and trying not to look down.

She wasn't sure if being Rumpelstiltskin's daughter was much better than being the Dark One himself in Hook's book. She was glad to have bought herself some time before she had to tell him everything. Maybe he would get somewhat attached to her during their mission and accept it all better later.

"About the Dark one..." She started to ask but stopped before she could finish her sentence.

"What is it?" He asked her.

"I've spent some time with him back in Storybrook... You should know that he has changed a lot... he not so Dark anymore and he's sorry for what he's done." Bella informed him, figuring it was the best time to try something.

"The Dark one having changed and feeling sorry? Yeah, I'll have to see it before I believe it. He still needs to pay for what he's done." Hook replied.

"I know about Milah, he told me everything... I know that nothing justifies killing her, that was very wrong but can you put himself in his place at all and understand his reasons?" Bella asked Hook.

"What reasons? He's an evil coward." The pirate snorted.

"He loved Milah, she was the first person he let in his heart since his father abandoned him back when he was a kid. His father left him twice. Once so he'd be free to drink and play money games all day long and when Rumpelstiltskin went to find him with a bean to go to another world and have a new start, his father left him a second time to enjoy life in a new world on his own... Milah... She was the first person Rumpelstiltskin let in besides the two women who took him in and taught him how to spin... Yes, he's been cowardly when the time to face the ogre came but only because a seer told him that his actions on the battlefield would leave his son fatherless..." Bella took a breath then and Hook spoke:

"See how well that turned out... I guess the apple didn't fall too far from the tree."

"I know that he left Baelfire... He's let his fears of loss rule his entire life and he's only now starting to get over that. It's not easy but he can do it, he's doing it. When he saw that Milah was alive with you after he'd spend so long mourning for her and beating himself up for not being able to fight for her... He got angry and took it out on her in the only way he could... I know that he regretted killing her the minute he had done it... You can believe whatever you want but he's not evil, he's just afraid."

"What about the coward part? You truly think that he's working on it, that he's changing?" Hook asked her.

She could see that he wasn't ready to change his mind, he was just letting her talk so he could get to know her better but she had to do her best to convince him.

"I do. He put himself under the sleeping curse so he could communicate with Aurora and Snow and guide us home. He told us where to find what we could need to get rid of Cora shall she attack us directly. He knows that you're with us and he told us to let you come if it got us home, that the priority was to come home, no matter the price." Bella said, not looking at hook but concentrating on moving upward.

"Why would he do that?" Killian asked her.

"Because he's trying to find some sort of redemption until he can find his son and tell him how sorry he is. All he wants is a chance to tell Baelfire that he loves him... He just wants to make things right." Bella insisted.

"He can never make things right with me." Hook replied in a hard voice.

"I know..." Bella sighted.

"Why are you telling me all this?" He asked her.

"Because I think he deserve a second chance, everyone does." She replied and Hook was silent for a while before he spoke again:

"How do you know so much about him anyway? For him to tell you all of this you had to be close... What's the reason behind this?"

"When Emma and I got to Storybrook and Regina made sure we couldn't stay at Granny's bed and breakfast, he found us a nice place to live, he helped us...He even let me work at his shop." Bella half-lied.

"And you just hit it off?" The pirate asked her, feeling that she was hiding something.

"Emma would tell you that I could get anyone, no matter how dark the heart, to open up and change his ways... I think I just gave him the chance he needed to be open and honest." Bella replied truthfully.

"You'd be upset if I killed him..." He realized.

"I would... Don't get me wrong, I understand your pain and I know that I'm in no position to tell you not to go after him but... I think that you should at least wait until he made up with Baelfire before you killed him..." Bella replied, avoiding his eyes.

"I'll think about it." He whispered before concentrating on their climb, checking on Bella every so often to see if she was following.

They climbed the rest of the way in a relative silence. Sometimes they would exchange a few words but Hook seemed to understand that Bella needed the silence to concentrate on facing her fear. When they finally reached the top, Hook easily got off but as Bella went to follow him, her foot slipped and she cut her hand on a sharp stone as she tried to hold on to something. She would have fallen all the way down if Killian hadn't reacted this fast. He reached out for her hand and quickly brought her up next to him.

"Thank you... I thought I was going to fall for a moment..." Bella breathed out.

She then started breathing from her mouth so she didn't smell the blood coming out of her hand. It was already making her dizzy. She really should start carrying a first hand kit on her all the time.

"I couldn't let you fall now could I? I don't even know your secret yet and I would miss the charming company you provide." He replied as he got his flask out and poured some of it on her hand before he started to tie his handkerchief around her hand.

"What are you doing?" She asked him as the alcohol touched her skin, burning her wound.

"Cleaning it off, we don't want it to get infected now, do we?" he asked her kindly.

It went a wave of happiness in Bella to know that he cared enough to do this. Having someone taking care of her was still new and she liked it. Usually, she was the one making sure the others were okay, not the other way around. Her father had been the first.

"Thank you... But you're going to wish you'd let me fall when I tell you my secret." She said honestly, without thinking.

"I doubt it." He shook his head.

He wanted to try and push her to tell her everything now but he changed his mind. He didn't want her getting upset and deciding not to tell him anything so he had to stick to the actual plan.

"Can I ask you a personal question?" Bella asked him.

"You can ask it, I can't promise to answer it though." He replied.

"I understand... Do you ever think you'll be able to get over Milah? I mean, she's been gone for over 200 years now..." She asked this question because as he treated her injured hand, she had seen his tattoo and it had hurt her.

She realised only too late that she mentioned how long Milah had been dead for when Hook had never given them this information. He didn't seem to pick up on it though.

"I strongly believe that once Love is gone, it's gone forever." He replied seriously.

"Really? You've never seen people finding another love later or are you just saying this because you'd feel bad meeting someone new?" She asked him.

"I don't know, maybe, if I ever meet the right woman, eventually... Not before I get my revenge on the Dark One though. I'll kill him before I can really let go of my Milah." He replied and the way he was looking at her had her blushing and looking down.

It was obvious that he was wondering if she was personally interested and she was glad that he didn't bring it up.

Hook wondered why she was so interested in this and why he was embarrassed to tell her that he didn't know if he'd be able to move on from Milah. Why did he want her to have hope about them? Why was he even thinking of the possibility of her in his arms when he knew for sure she was keeping a big secret from him, a secret she was afraid of revealing and that made her believe he would change his mind about helping them?

"I'm guessing this is where the final battle happened... Those bones are so big..." Bella said as she looked in awe around the place.

"All we have to do is wait for him to fall asleep and..." He started but she cut him off.

"It would take way too long. What if he just woke up or if he has insomnia? We have to be as quick as possible, what if Cora is on her way? What if she found a way to go up? Mulan gave me some magical sleeping powder. All we have to do is find a way to make him breath it all." Bella said as she showed him the small bag she had put in the shoulder bag she had taken from Snow's castle.

There wasn't much in it, simply a knife, a box of matches, Mulan's powder and some string that she figured could be useful. She liked to have a bag with her, always. This way she could put potentially useful things. Now that she had taken the sleeping powder out of it, it felt really empty, almost useless.

"Right... Well, you should climb on that statue. I'll attract him and you'll throw it in his face when he comes out." He suggested.

"Okay.. Hum...I have to climb this? Can't we exchange places?" She asked him.

She couldn't see herself climb that big statue. It didn't look like it was going to be very easy to do.

"No, you'll be safer up there and I promised I'd get you down alive. Don't worry, you can do it." he encouraged her as she did her best to climb the huge statue while he stayed on the safe ground and told her what to do.

Once she was on top of the statue (finally) and ready, Hook used a huge bone, probably one of the leg, to hit a metal shield and attracted the giant outside. As soon as the last remaining giant walked through the door of his castle, they both realised that Bella wasn't high enough to put him to sleep.

When Hook saw that they were about to lose a good opportunity, he yelled and managed to anger the giant enough so that he'd try to catch him, bringing him down to the right height for Bella to blow all the powder in his face.

The giant breathed everything in and quickly went crashing on the ground, making everything shake and forcing Bella to slide down the statue if she didn't want to fall and hurt herself.

"Hook!" She called out when she didn't see him.

She saw the giant fall on him and she was too busy making sure she would slide down the statue instead of falling down that she couldn't see if he had had time to run away from the heavy giant falling asleep.

"Well, we do make a good team, don't we love?" he said joyfully as he appeared from under the giant's pants.

"Yeah, that we do." She smiled, happy to know he was safe before she followed him inside.

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While Bella and Hook entered the giant's castle, Mulan and Emma trained.

"You're getting better." Mulan complimented Emma.

"Thanks, it's not as hard as I thought it would be." Emma replied.

"It's in your blood. You seem worried though."

"Yeah, I'm worried about Bella and about Henry... I hope he's doing fine." Emma replied.

"Isn't his father there to take care of him?" She asked.

"No, and that's a good thing. He's with his grandfather, my father... I guess it's best this way... Henry's father... he wasn't a good guy." Emma explained.

"Did he... Were you forced...?" Mulan started to ask.

"What? Oh no! No, I just mean that he was a liar and a thief... he broke my heart and my trust..." Emma said.

"I understand... It's the kind of experiences who makes you want to give up on men all together right?" Mulan asked her but there was an edge in her voice.

"Sometimes... In Storybrook, I met someone... Graham... I'm not sure I'm in love with him yet but I definitely care a lot about him and knowing that Henry is with him and my father makes me feel better..."

"You don't know if you love him?" Mulan asked.

"I think that I do but that deep down I'm doing my best not to feel love because I'm afraid of being hurt again...and a part of me still loves Henry's father, which isn't such a good thing."

"Hurting is part of life... The pain is just a remainder that you survived, that you're alive." Mulan explained.

"That's very wise. What about you, any epic love stories to tell?" Emma asked her as they took a break and went to sit by Snow and Aurora who had a fire going with some kind of meet roasting.

"No... I joined the emperor's army because it was who I was, even if I broke rules by doing it but it made me see men in a totally different way. I'm aware that they're not all unwashed pigs, rude asses or violent uncaring idiots but I... I think it changed something in me... I... Now I feel for women what I should feel for men... I try not to but... It's not easy..." Mulan confessed.

It was the first time that she confessed this to anyone.

"It's okay, you can't change who you are. It's quite common in our world. One day you'll find the right person for you, I'm sure of it. At least that's what Bella would tell you." Emma replied gently, finishing with a chuckle.

"Have you ever been in love with a woman then?" Snow asked Mulan.

"Maybe not in Love but attracted to one yes, a few times." Mulan replied.

"Did you confess your feelings?" Emma asked her.

"No... I was too afraid of rejection and most of the time they were in love with a man... There was nothing I could do." Mulan explained.

"Well, next time, don't wait until it's too late. You never know what the outcome could be." Emma advised.

"Emma's right. Life has ways of surprising you sometimes." Snow added, smiling with pride at her daughter.

"You said that it was common in your world but have you ever experienced anything like this?" Mulan asked Emma.

"Actually yes, I did. When I was 20 I wanted to experience around a bit... Her name was Marissa and she was a lesbian, that's how we call women who love women instead of men. I was looking for some entertainment and she offered to let me experience with her. I did." Emma explained, embarrassed to say this in front of her mother.

"And? Did you like it?" Mulan asked while Snow tried to ignore what was being said about her daughter.

She still had a lot to learn about her.

"It's wasn't that bad but I didn't enjoy it as much as when it's with a man. I guess it's just not who I am." Emma replied before she glanced at the beanstalk.

"Don't worry, she'll be fine." Snow comforted her daughter.

"What if she ends up telling him who she is while they're up there and he ends up leaving her behind or worst, killing her?" Emma exclaimed.

"I don't think it's going to happen. On one hand Bella is smart and will probably wait until they are down to tell him anything, on the other, Hook seems to be a man of honor and I've watched him. He's curious about Bella, I think that whatever she feels, he's starting to feel it, it's just taking longer because of his personal issues." Snow explained.

"But why?" Aurora asked.

"Probably because he's still not over his past love, Milah." Emma replied.

"I feel bad for Bella... Things just look so complicated for her and Hook..." Aurora said.

"I know... She's waited 28 years to fall in love and it falls on the one enemy of her father who has a damned good reason not to give up his revenge..." Mulan nodded.

"We'll figure things out. True Love always finds a way and I have a feeling that what's between them is true love." Snow announced before Emma and Mulan decided to go hunting for some food.

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Back in Storybrook, Ruby was looking for her red hood and she couldn't find it anywhere. Even M. Gold had tried to help but it wasn't in his shop and he couldn't use magic to locate it because it was already a powerful magical object. She was worried about turning for the first time in so long and losing control...she didn't want to hurt anyone.

"You could always lock me up in the freezer, it's probably strong enough to hold me..." she suggested as she was in Gold's shop with David, her grandmother, Graham and Belle.

"It's full of food... What about the cell next to Regina's?" Graham offered.

"How about in the cell WITH Regina?" Leroy suggested with a smirked.

"Be serious please, it's important." Ruby scolded, stopping all their chuckles.

"I can always throw the food away... The freezer seems to be the best option." Granny replied.

"How about where the dragon was before Regina killed it?" Belle asked.

"She's right. The basement of the library will definitely be strong enough to hold the wolf and to keep her away from anyone else." Gold nodded.

"I think it's the best option." David nodded.

"It's settled then. It's always better than risking hurting people.. I don't want to kill anyone else..." Ruby replied as she lead the way to the library.


So, Chapter 9 already...what do you think of it?

Who will Mulan fall in love with? Will it be shared? I might not follow the show on this one... Who do you think she should fall for to make things more interesting for us?

Review please, reading them always cheers me up.

I'm not feeling too well lately but I'll try to keep on updating weekly.

Lorelei Candice Black