Coming Back to You
Chapter Nine
Silence fell heavy between Emma and David after they had been served the supper prepared by the crew's cook. David noticed his daughter had hardly eaten much of anything while she picked at the food on the tray. It wasn't that the stew, stale bread, and cheese they were served was too terrible. He understood all too well she was having a hard time coming to terms with seeing the man she loved, the truth she had yet to admit to herself, in such a tragic state. He himself couldn't believe that his friend, who had been a ruthless villain when they first met, had first grown up a slave within the hands of a more vile pirate than himself.
Eventually, she gave up on trying to eat all together and set the tray down beside her, then stood up to cross the deck to the side of the ship as she began to look out among the ocean waves surrounding them. Not knowing when they were going to get another meal, David finished what he was given, then he moved to the ship's side behind Emma and slowly rubbed his hand over her back to try to comfort her. At first, her only reaction to him was when she reached out to lay her hand on top of his.
Emma turned her head to look over at him finally and then spoke up saying, "I can't understand why the portal would send us here. We're trapped two hundred years in the past… in Killian's past that I never knew about. He never told me any of this. Before Regina and Robin interrupted us as we were walking back towards town, we were talking. It was because of Killian that I was able to see how badly I was hurting you and Mom by refusing to forgive you. I was also hurting myself."
David looked out over the ocean, then back to her again as he quietly responded, "I suspected as much, but he didn't say anything. He just smiled and looked away. How did he do it? I mean, what did he say to you to help you?"
"What are we lookin' at?" Emma finally asked after they walked there and sat for several minutes in silence.
"The horizon," Hook stated as he motioned his head to have her look in the distance before them.
She did so, but quickly asked in confusion, "Is it doing something?"
Hook turned his head back to look at her as he replied, "Well, I just thought you'd find it calming."
"It is," Emma answered. "So is rum."
"Emma, I can tell that your heart is uneasy," Killian said again gently, concerned that there was nothing more he could do or say to help ease her pain. "And it's my job... Well, I hope it's my job, to protect your heart, even when no one is physically trying to steal it."
Emma looked at him as she responded with confidence, "You don't have to stop me from going after Gold. I'm smarter than that. He didn't turn my heart dark, and I'm not gonna fall into one of his traps."
Hook looked down, then back at her once again and replied, "I'm not worried him getting to your heart. I was talking about your parents."
"Oh, we talked about this," she spoke with a sigh.
"I talked, you walked away," he retorted and then continued to speak the harsh truth he knew she needed to hear. "I just wanna know, is anything gonna be enough? Or are you willing to lose them just to spite them?"
Emma turned away from him as she held out her hand and answered, "Gimme back the rum."
Hook did as she asked and then continued on even when she tried to interrupt him, not giving her the chance to do responding, "They've done a lot of good. Turned themselves into heroes. Yes, I know they didn't own up to what they did. But did you ever think maybe they were ashamed? And they wanted you to like them."
"I'd like them more if... I'd known they turned themselves around," she replied in frustration. "I like when people find their good hearts along the way."
He grinned timidly and rolled his head, then answered sincerely, "They were trying to protect you, Swan. Twice. Before you were born, they wanted to make you happy. And when they found you again, they wanted to make you proud. Do you want both those to be failures?"
Emma finished recalling her conversation with him down at the harbor while they overlooked the ocean and horizon like Emma was doing with her father now, then she continued, "Killian believes that I would have eventually forgiven you and Mom on my own, but… I'm not so sure."
"Hook was right," Charming responded sincerely and then turned to face her directly. "But it doesn't make me any less grateful to him for helping you."
"I also asked him about his family," she stated. "He spoke a little of his brother. About how he still blames himself for his death. They really were close. I hate the fact that you and I both know what's going to happen to him and later to Killian, yet we can't do anything to alter either of their futures. Killian warned me of the dangers of trying to do so when we went through the first time portal and yet I still made the mistake of bringing Marian, or Zelena back with us. And look what happened. But how the hell am I supposed to sit back and stay silent while that bastard Silver treats Killian like a slave?"
David then gripped his daughter's hand more tightly as he firmly replied, "As despicable as it is, Emma… he is a slave in this time. We can't change his past no matter how much we want to. Everything has to remain as it is."
Emma nodded in compliance, then turned her head upon seeing Killian come back out onto the deck from below carrying two buckets of what she and David could only imagine was waste. The pirates surrounding them all began to jeer and mock him while he worked, making Emma want nothing more than to use her powers to throw them all overboard. Killian struggled to ignore them, as he carefully set the buckets down so that he could pick one up at a time and dumped the filth over the side, then did the same with the second pail. When he bent down again to collect the other one before heading below deck again, Killian glanced over at Emma as their eyes met and Emma could see the despair and hate for himself within them even from several feet away. He quickly turned away and walked off.
Emma looked at her father as she spoke up saying, "If we weren't interrupted when Regina came to tell us about Zelena… From the sadness in his eyes, I could tell that Killian was going to say something about his past that troubled him very deeply. When we fell through the portal, I was thinking about him. Aside from being afraid for him after seeing him get hurt, I must have been hoping I'd have the chance to find out what he wanted to tell me."
"Well, maybe falling into Hook's past is the portal's way of revealing what it was," the Prince answered as he went over to pick up the food she didn't eat and then held the tray out to her again. "I know the food is… well it's pretty awful really. But we need to eat so we can to keep up our strength. Who knows how long we'll be trapped here and it's going to be rough, especially for you so long as Hook is around. Once we get to the Enchanted Forest and get away from here, things will be easier. But even then, we're going to have to hunt for our food until we find whoever the Dark One is. And after."
"Killian and I did it, as Mom and I did while we were trapped in the Enchanted Forest in the present day," Emma whispered calmly. "I can do this, Dad. I'll be fine. I have my magic this time to help us with whatever we need. And to protect us."
