GOD ONLY KNOWS

...what I'd be without you.


I may not always love you

But long as there are stars above you

You never need to doubt it

I'll make you so sure about it...

God Only Knows, The Beach Boys


Getting her down is easier said than done. The one with their face covered climbs up the tree while the one who knocked out Hook awkwardly tries to look for a chivalrous way to grab her. In the end, they have to lower her enough so that the knight in shining armor can pick her up bridal style. Usually she'd be angry about being held, but he lets her down quickly enough and she's still in a lot of pain so she just lets it slide. Her head screams as the blood starts to redistribute itself, but she ignores the pain and there are plenty of pains to ignore, as she drops to her knees to check on Hook.

"Milady, what would you have me do with your captor?" Her rescuer asks, and it takes her a minute to realize he's asking if he should kill Hook, bind him, or something else. She's not sure if she should point out that Hook isn't technically her captor... He's just not her savior.

"Don't hurt him," She says suddenly and sharply, and the man steps back, as if to show he's respecting her wishes. There's a thump as the one in the tree drops down, but it's surprisingly light. They're very controlled.

Emma struggles to roll Hook onto his side. She checks for his pulse out of habit, but she's starting to think this little fucker is invincible, as his heartbeat is plodding away steady as can be. She doesn't care how strange it looks as she tugs open the buttons on his coat and looks for his wound. She nearly swallows her tongue in surprise when she notices that not only are the bandages gone but the wound is too. There's an ugly purple mark in its place, but there's no goddamn way it could have healed that fast. It's impossible. She's so shocked she runs her fingers across the skin as if she needs more proof than just what her eyes are telling her, but the skin is warm and solid beneath her fingers.

"He's not my captor," She tells the trio as she looks up to notice they're looking at her strangely. "He's... I don't know what he is, but he's not going to hurt anybody." Unless one of you happens to be a Crocodile, and let's just hope that isn't the case.

All three of them have marked looks of skepticism, which Emma could have sworn was her thing. The one who is closest clears his throat.

"Milady, he had you strung up and tried to-" Emma silenced him with a sharp look. It was good to know those still worked. She'd used them on Hook many times and he was markedly unaffected by them.

"He was poisoned. He said it was going to make him hallucinate, I guess I just didn't realize how badly." Her heart pounded, as if a painful reminder of how her own arrogance had nearly killed her. What would she have done if he had taken her heart? She still wasn't sure why he hadn't and she couldn't really ask him now.

"Poisoned?" The one that had been up the tree spoke up and Emma gave herself a few brownie points for rightly pegging her as a female. "How long ago? There is a plant in these woods that can be refined into a hallucinogenic, but it can last days. He could still be dangerous."

Emma wants to argue, that Hook had definitely recognized her before Mr. Knight in Shining Armor had knocked him out, but she doesn't have a leg to stand on here. She didn't know this forest or its hallucinogenic plants. She wondered if back in the day kids had been tripping on forest foliage, or if even the teenagers in fairytales were idealistic and too noble for such things. "I don't really know. Maybe... twelve, or so."

"Phillip, we need to restrain him," She said, not even speaking to Emma anymore, which sparked annoyance in the blonde. She was still here, and did not appreciate being spoken over like a dog.

"I'll do it. I just need to get to my coat. It's... it's over there," Emma said, pointing at the alcove where she had left Hook when he was decidedly more friendly. Her ankle pulsed unkindly, telling her that if it wasn't sprained or pulled, it could very well be broken. The two armored ones shared a glance, but the girl in the foamy dress went to the directed area and came back with her coat. "Thank you," Emma said, though it wasn't exactly easy to be polite right about now.

Hook would hate her for this, but she snapped the cuffs around his wrists, behind his back. It was kind of awkward with him completely unconscious, but she didn't have much of a choice in the matter. If he woke up and was fine, she'd uncuff him. He would understand. If he was still hallucinating, this girl probably had a point. She didn't need him digging around in her chest again, so it was better to be safe than sorry.

There was an awkward silence that hung over the three of them, and Emma tried to decide how to nicely tell them to go away. It wasn't that she wasn't grateful, but right about now she didn't trust anyone. She at least knew Hook – and once he was over the effects of the poison, she was going to get rid of him, too. She wasn't going to take any more chances in the Enchanted Forest. She couldn't take the chance that she'd get betrayed again. She was cutting these people out before they got a chance to stab her in the back.

But, before she could let them down gently, the male decided it was time for introductions.

"Milady, I am Prince Phillip. This is my betrothed Aurora." He gestured at the pretty girl in the silly dress. Emma couldn't say she was overly surprised that she'd run into Sleeping Beauty and her prince. At least Aurora was awake. "And that is our good friend, Mulan." That was more surprising, actually. What was Mulan doing with the cast of Sleeping Beauty? They were completely different movies. And wasn't Mulan based a real person? What was she even doing in the Enchanted Forest? Emma nodded numbly at the introductions, hoping she could get out of doing the same.

Aurora had other plans. "And you are?" She asked, tone impatient and kind of demanding. Well, princesses were used to getting their own way, probably.

Emma didn't want to answer these three anymore than she'd wanted to answer Hook, but at least these three were 'good guys', maybe? These stories tended to get skewed in the retelling, but she could hope that their characters were similar to the ones she'd heard in the stories. Even if they didn't really need her name, it probably wasn't going to make or break her.

"Emma," She answered, slightly begrudgingly. "Now, thanks for helping me, but I can handle it from here."

There was a long stretch of silence, and both Philip and Mulan shared a glance. Aurora looked at them and seemed annoyed. Apparently, she wasn't fond of their silent discussions. Whatever they were wordlessly talking about, Aurora had other plans.

"Don't be ridiculous," the girl snapped. "You were strung up in a tree by a crazy man that tried to steal your heart, and who knows if he really was hallucinating? Your ankle is probably broken. You need our help and we won't leave until I'm quite satisfied you are all right. We took the trouble to save you so the least you can do is let us get you settled. Understood?"

Well. Aurora had a surprising amount of backbone under that ridiculous dress and silly tiara. Emma was surprised, and according to the expressions on her companion's faces, so were Phillip and Mulan. Emma hated to be coddled in the best of circumstances but Aurora's reasoning was much like why Emma was refusing to abandon Hook. She had to know he was okay before she could leave him behind. Emma hated to do it, but she'd be a hypocrite if she refused.

And she wasn't sure Aurora was going to let her refuse.

She gave a stiff nod in agreement, and Aurora gave her a pleased, pretty smile. It did not do much to soothe Emma's nerves but she had to admire the girl's pluckiness.

"We will need to find a place to set up camp," Mulan said, eyes skyward. "We have only a couple hours of daylight left."

"There's a village of sorts not far from here," Emma offered, though she wasn't sure any of the three cared about what she had to say. However, she was surprised when Mulan turned to her, watching her and waiting for more information. "It's... uh, it's that way. About five or six buildings, but some have collapsed."

"It could offer enough shelter for the night," Phillip said, and Mulan seemed to nod in agreement. He looked down at Hook, who looked like he was sleeping off a hangover instead of a heavy blow to the back of the head. "Perhaps we ought to-"

"We aren't leaving him. I'll carry him myself if I have to," Emma snapped. Granted, she had no idea how she would accomplish such a feat, but apparently Phillip got the message. He nodded warily.

"No, Milady-" Emma gave him a sharp reprimand.

"You asked for my name, so start using it," She snapped. Phillip looked quite surprised at the sharpness of her rebuke, but he didn't say anything about it.

"Emma," He corrected. "I'll carry him." However, after a bit of struggling, by the time Philip had Hook upright, it turned out that Mulan had to assist him. Emma knew from experience the pirate was pretty heavy, so she wasn't surprised.

She was surprised, however, when Aurora helped her to her feet and even was surprisingly steady on her feet to help her along. The girl was small but stronger than she looked.

"We have some things in the cave back there, they could be useful." Emma stated, nodding in its direction. Mulan glanced back, and shook her head.

"If I have daylight, I'll return for them. We need to get to safety before night falls." Emma wanted to argue but even if they retrieved the bag, she wasn't sure who would carry it. Mulan and Phillip had their hands full with the heavy pirate, and Aurora was stronger than she looked but probably not that strong.

What had taken her twenty minutes before now took them twice that. The sun was starting to set as they finally made it to the edge of the forest. Aurora said she needed a break and Emma wasn't too far from that herself, though she hadn't made a loud note of it. Mulan and Phillip had both decided to venture further and make sure the small collection of buildings were uninhabited and safe. It was clear that neither Philip nor Mulan wanted to leave Aurora behind. Emma wasn't sure she could blame them; she was kind of a fishy subject. They both seemed to care about Aurora's safety and though Emma knew she wasn't going to hurt the girl, it wasn't exactly easy to trust people in the Enchanted Forest. Granted, there was good reason for that.

However, Aurora settled her down in the grass where she could lean against a tree, before sitting down next to her. She then waved her two companions off, apparently completely confident in her safety. That made exactly one of them. Mulan and Phillip had every right to find her questionable company for Aurora, they had hardly met her. Emma herself was more concerned about another random resident of the Enchanted Forest coming after her, seeing as she was such a charming target these days. However, to Emma's surprise, Mulan and Phillip gingerly set the still quite unconscious Hook down in the grass, and trudged off towards the abandoned village.

Emma was kind of surprised how often they let the smallest, least capable team member make so many decisions, but she had to reason that Aurora didn't often give people room to refuse. It must be nice to be a princess, she thought, to always get what you want. Aurora gave a soft sigh, closing her eyes.

Even though leaning against the tree was surprisingly comfortable, Emma wearily rolled onto her knees and crawled over to her charge. Hook was completely out, but didn't seem otherwise worse for the wear. There was quite the lump on the back of his head where good ol' Phil had struck him, but otherwise he seemed fine. Emma got a better look at his wound, but it was no easier to understand how he'd healed so quickly now than it had been before. It was astonishing, and there had to be an explanation... But she wasn't sure she'd get the answer, even if Hook was awake enough to give it. He was pretty cagey when it came to specifics, especially about himself in particular.

She checked his pulse out of habit before giving up on him, she had yet to have any success in waking him up from being KO'd. So she picked her battles, crawling back to where Aurora was still leaning against the tree. Emma did note that the girl no longer had her eyes closed, and even worse, she made no attempts to hide the fact that she had been watching Emma check on the pirate.

Emma watched her for a moment, before pulling up her jeans to admire the quite incredible bruising around her ankle from which she'd been suspended. Unsurprisingly, the ankle had swollen to at least twice its original size. Well, that couldn't be good. Emma hissed lightly as she touched the mark gingerly.

"Don't worry, Mulan has some pain-numbing herbs. I bet she has something to reduce the swelling, too." Aurora said, probably in an attempt to be reassuring. Emma wasn't sure how reassured she was, considering she might have a broken ankle. She told herself she couldn't have gotten this far on a broken ankle, but honestly, she hadn't put any weight on it during the walk, and it had hurt plenty all the same. "So, who is he? Is he your lover?"

The girl was surprisingly blunt, but severely off base. Emma shook her head with an eye roll. "No, he's not my lover. Not even close. ...He was helping me, I guess." Helping was really a strong word when all Hook had managed was to be completely irritating. "Then he got hurt, and it was kinda my fault. I just need to make sure he's okay, and then I'll be able to get on my way."

"I see," Aurora said, in a tone that implied she saw a lot more than Emma did. Emma hated this tone coming from anyone, but it was especially grating from naïve little girls much younger than she was.

Frustrated, Emma found herself snapping, "He's not my lover, all right? A pain in the fucking ass is more accurate."

Aurora could have been startled by her language and put on a shocked affront in response, Emma would have expected that. However, the girl gave her an unimpressed stare, clearly underwhelmed by Emma's foul language.

"Sure," Aurora said in an agreeable tone that Emma found far from agreeable. "You did notice how you checked on him before you checked on yourself, right? Yes, I'm sure you don't care about him in the slightest, silly me!"

Sarcasm was not a good look for Sleeping Beauty, Emma thought. She sent the girl a dark look, but Aurora was not as easy to cow as her fiancé. . Aurora even had the audacity to laugh at her.

"Just because you don't want it to be true, doesn't mean it isn't," The girl said snottily. "I can see it from a mile away, so why can't you?"

Emma hated when people told her how she felt, especially when they were painfully wrong. "Don't quit your day job, kid, because you're shit at reading body language." Aurora shrugged, but instead of respectful apology, she just made a large show of closing her eyes, as if she was quite done with the conversation.

This girl was infuriating.

Emma made a point of not checking up on the pirate again while the two waited, in particularly stony silence, for Mulan and Phillip to return. The sun was setting by the time the two returned, but at least they brought the good news that the village was safe enough to spend the night. Though Emma tried to make a good stand that she was strong enough to walk on her own, Aurora ignored her. Emma was starting to dislike how this girl could read signs perfectly well but then pointedly disregard them if they didn't suit her. Thankfully, she didn't have to tolerate the girl helping her along too far, as it took less than ten minutes to make it to the shelter that the other two had prepared. There situated in the largest building that was still upright. Mulan and Phillip had dragged in a few cots, possibly from other buildings. They put Hook in the corner, and Aurora left her on a sleeping mat not far from him. There was a musty, dirty blanket, but Emma couldn't even look at it without sneezing, so she tossed it as far away as she could manage.

The triad of nuisances all disappeared, all with different claims to find or do this or that. Emma was left behind because of her bum ankle. She hoped it wasn't as bad as it looked. It hurt plenty and looked bad, but maybe she'd be lucky and the sprain would settle by morning. While she was at it, it would be great if Hook would wake up already. If she counts she's pretty sure the bastard has been asleep or unconscious the majority of the time she's known him. Just thinking about him is enough to make her annoyed. It reminds her of Aurora, though she hasn't known the girl long enough to really compare her to the obnoxiousness that is Killian Jones. Though the girl had certainly tried.

Because, really. She and Hook? Lovers? That was a good one. Maybe Aurora did have a new career in the wings, because she was quite the little comedian. Just because Emma had a small degree of compulsion to see the pirate well, that certainly didn't mean she had feelings for him. Any feelings she had (if she had any at all!) were largely negative. After all, he'd been more trouble than he was worth. The sooner she could be rid of the troubled pirate, the better.

In fact, when he woke up, she would unlock him and send him on his way. She might not be good to walk for a couple days but she had a feeling she wouldn't be able to get rid of Aurora and Co. until she was in better shape. But that didn't mean Hook had to be around, pissing her off whenever Aurora was too bored to do it.

Speaking of Hook...

Emma was exhausted, and part of her really did want to just allow herself to pass out. But despite the annoying implications of Aurora's statement, she was worried about him. So she'd checked on him first, that didn't mean anything. She was already aware of her injuries, she'd just been ascertaining how bad it was! She found she had a troubling inclination to check on him. Aurora wasn't here to give her shit about it, at least. She chalked it up to her need to feel useful, and currently the pirate was her only charge. She could check on him quickly, sneak back into her bed, and nobody would be the wiser.

She had to crawl to him slowly, due to her protesting ankle, but he wasn't terribly far away. Mulan and Phillip had put him down with a particular lack of care, Emma noticed, on his side. She gingerly checked his pulse, but as always, it seemed normal. She sighed, before deciding he'd be more comfortable on his back. Granted, his hands cuffed behind his back, nothing would be comfortable. Thankfully, her keys were also in the jacket she'd put on after Aurora had retrieved it, so she fished them out and gingerly set about freeing his wrists so she could fasten them again in front, so he'd be more comfortable.

The second both were free, her supposedly sleeping pirate startled her by turning over abruptly. Her heart thumped uncomfortably by the unwelcome surprise, and an edge of unease crept through her. What if he was still hallucinating? His good hand wrapped around one of her wrists, and with a sudden tug he had her flush against him.

"About bloody time," He murmured, and actually hearing his voice was kind of a relief. She shifted against him to look up at his face. His eyes were clear and he seemed coherent. Thank god. "Couldn't wait to get your hands all over me, Swan?" A blessedly familiar tone purred in her ear. She gave a soft exhalation of relief, before she struggled against him and sat up.

"Get over yourself, pirate." She said, falling into their banter surprisingly easily. She should be mad at him, shouldn't she? After all, he'd put her through a lot. But could she really fault him for hallucinations that he'd even warned her about? "I think I liked you better when you were unconscious."

"Mmm, darling, I'm much more fun when I can participate," He responded, apparently not taking much offense in her pulling away. He sat up, and there wasn't a lot of distance between them. It was hard to back up with a bum ankle, so the best she could do was lean back. He seemed to sober slightly, looking at her. "I told you to leave, Swan. The hallucinations..."

Did that mean he didn't remember them? Emma gave an impassive shrug. "Nothing I can't handle, Hook. Don't be so dramatic." If he didn't remember, she wasn't going to bring it up. Their parting would be much smoother if she wasn't pressing him for details and he wasn't trying to needle her for what happened.

A sudden touch at her cheekbone surprised her and made her heart drop into her stomach. At first she wasn't sure what he was doing, but the slight pain that arched through her cheek at the touch reminded her of the blow she'd gotten from the creep with a bow.

"Did I do that to you?" Hook asked, a surprising tone entering his voice. Emma didn't know what to make of it, and decided she didn't want to.

"No," She responded evenly. Hook clearly didn't believe her, but it was the truth. She reached up to push his hand away but instead of letting her, he took hold of her hand. His eyes were piercing, as if he was trying to read her, like she was an open book and no matter how she answered, he'd know the truth if he just watched carefully.

"Did I hurt you?" He asked cleanly and clearly, and Emma schooled her features into a complete lack of reaction. It wasn't important, was it? She didn't want him to feel guilty about something he hadn't been in control of – especially right before she ditched him.

Before she even heard footsteps, she noticed Hook's attention snap to somewhere behind them. His grip on her hand tightened and she turned around, taking note of Mulan returning with the bags they'd left in the alcove (damn that girl made good time, it hadn't even been half an hour since she'd left), her expression wary.

"See? No more hallucinations," Emma said loudly, trying to kill the hostility crackling between the two. She pulled her hand sharply back from the pirate. "Nothing to worry about." Both parties looked the absolute opposite of unworried, but hey, it was worth a shot. "So, Hook, you can leave now."

She wasn't sure if the extremely controlled expression was for her benefit or Mulan's. Whatever Hook thought about the situation, it wasn't at all obvious on his face. However, while his attention was mostly on her (though at least partly on Mulan), he didn't move, and she decided to give him an extra push.

"I just wanted to know you were okay," She informed him stiffly, moving back from him as quickly as her aching ankle would allow. "You are, so, you might as well be on your way. I think I'm better off on my own."

Hook didn't answer for a long beat, but after the aching silence, he finally asked, "Is that what you want?"

Emma wasn't sure why it was difficult to answer, but she managed all the same. "Yes. I want you to leave."

Hook apparently didn't need to be told twice, stiffly standing up and moving out of the tent. Mulan was all nerves as he passed, but he didn't make any movements toward her. In fact, he acted as if she wasn't even there, though Emma was positive this was just to make her feel as if he didn't consider her a threat.

Mulan did not seem like much of a talker, but her dark eyes slid in her direction once the pirate was far enough out of earshot.

"Are you sure that was wise, Emma?" She asked simply, glancing back into the darkness. Maybe she could see him leaving and was watching where he went. She was probably right to keep an eye on him, that pirate couldn't be trusted.

"Yes," Emma answered firmly, trying to convince herself as well as Mulan. "It's the smartest thing I've done in a really long time."