Author's note: Thank for reviews and more follows! I love that you like this story! Now for you enjoyment, Chapter 9.
Her eyes opened slowly still filled with sleep as the daylight shined through the tiny porthole above the bed. He was the first image to appear from the tired blur in her eyes. He laid on his back, with his hair ruffled and his head resting on the pillow, his blue eyes shut dreamily with a calm expression on his face. She couldn't help her self. With a sweet smile she leaned over to him and placed a tender kiss to his lips. The touch seemed to be returned when she felt him kiss back as he awoke. She pulled away slowly, his eyes remaining shut for a few seconds before opening and staring at her with an ear-to-ear smile.
"Good morning." She whispered as she slid her hand down his chest and around his waist. His face suddenly cringed when she accidently brushed over the still painful stab wound. She gasped and made an apologetic expression. "I'm sorry." She brought her hand back to his chest and remained careful with him.
"It's alright, love. I'm fine." He replied as he brushed back her long hair hanging in her face. "Just a bit sore, that's all." He laughed as he cupped his hand on the back of her head.
She whispered while leaning in, "That's understandable, dear." She giggled deeply and kissed his sweet lips again. She felt so happy; the happiest she had ever been in the longest time. Who would have thought that this pirate could bring out the person she used to be, the person she had longed to be? No one else had ever made her smile that way since Daniel; she thought she would never be able to again after his death. But there she was lying in the arms of a beautiful and strong man who wanted to do nothing more than protect her from anything and everything. It was almost too perfect.
"Are the boys awake?" Hook asked quietly, not taking his eyes off of her.
"I haven't heard them all morning." She replied.
"Well, then." Hook smirked as he rolled the beautiful brunette to her back. "I suppose we savor the time we have now, love." He laughed as he kissed her. He felt her soft hands caress his face as she giggled quietly.
The coupled suddenly heard the sound of doorknob jiggling followed by a light knocking. "Hey! Why is the door locked?" The sound of the youngest boy Tucker said from the other side of the door. "I wanna come in. Wake up! Wake up!" The four-year-old's knocking became more frantic and loud.
Regina began to laugh. She looked at the Captain with a raised brow and said, "I guess I spoke too soon."
The couple quickly got out of the bed. Regina slipped on one of the Captain's large white shirts and Hook put some comfortable pants on. Regina went to the door and unlocked it. She smiled as the giggly young boy ran into the room. "What took you so long?" He asked as he ran to the bed. They watched him try to hop onto the large bed but he was too short to reach. With a kind smile, Regina walked over and lifted the little one up before sitting back down on her side. He crawled in the middle of the couple with a huge smile stretched on his face. His brown hair was ruffled up and his green eyes sparkled lightly in the sunlight. He stood up in the center of the bed and began jumping up and down energetically. "Are we going to have another adventure today?" He asked excitedly.
Regina nervously held out her hand incase the boy lost balance. She looked to Hook and waited for his answer. "Perhaps, my boy."
Tucker jumped to his knees, making Regina's nerves calm a bit more. He asked, "Like what?"
Hook remained playful with the boy. "How would you like to learn how to sail a pirate ship?"
"Really?" He asked with utter excitement. He watched the Captain nod his with a smile. "Let's go!" Tucker began to crawl to the end of the bed.
Regina laughed, "Maybe give us some time to wake up, sweetheart."
"Oh… yeah." He said as he crawled back to his original place and sat down. He sat and stared at them for a few moments in silence. Within a minute he asked, "Are you awake now?"
Regina leaned over and smiled to him, "Why don't you go get the other two up?"
"They are awake! But Blaze doesn't want to go anywhere. He's being grumpy." The boy replied with a scrunched up face.
Hook looked at the young boy with concern and then came up with a little plan. "Why don't you bring Willy in here, my boy, and I shall talk with Blake." He watched the little one hop off of the bed and scurry out the door. Regina looked over the Captain with a confused expression. He simply leaned over, pecked her lips and whispered, "Trust me love," before he got up and walked out of the room.
0-0-0
Regina looked towards the door as the two rambunctious young boys ran in and jumped onto the bed. Well, Tucker attempted to but was still too short to reach and had to wait for Regina to lift him up. She listened to the boys laugh happily. As Regina beckoned, both boys stopped jumping and sat down at the edge of the bed with their legs dangling off.
She knelt down with a little bowl of water and a rag that she had taken to wash the boys' feet, hands and faces. As she began to soak the rag in the bowl, she wondered to herself. She had never expected that she would go from an Evil Queen to a modest woman caring for three young boys. In her old life, she wouldn't have dreamt of it. She wasn't even sure what prompted her to be doing it in that very moment, but she was. She enjoyed looking at the sweet and innocent smiles on their faces. It reminded her of how she used to feel so innocent; it was one of the greatest feelings in the world. That, and love.
She smiled as she took Tucker's little foot in her hands and began washing the dirty off of it, making him giggle as she tickled him. The sound of his laugh seemed to come right from his toes; it made Regina smile every time she heard it. As she moved to the young blonde Willy, she listened as Tucker began to speak.
"Are you like our new mother?" He asked bluntly, making Regina stop what she was doing and look at him with shock. She wasn't sure how to respond to such a question. Her eyes remained wide as she looked at the boy who didn't really understand why she was so surprised by his question.
She stuttered a bit, "Well… I…" Finally managing to get the right words out, she replied, "I don't think you'd want me as your mother, dear."
"Why not?" Willy asked shyly.
"I just don't think I'd be very good at it. I'm not very good with love." Regina smiled as she rung out the warm water and proceeded to wash Tucker's hands.
"I think you're perfect at it!" Tucker exclaimed with a smile. "You hug us, and you wash us, and you tuck us in. That's what mommies do."
Willy added in, "And you don't have do be good at love." He smiled. "It's just there."
"Like magic!" Tucker said with a giggle.
"Yeah!" Willy exclaimed in return.
Regina looked at them curiously. These two boys, so young and so naïve, could remind her of something that she had forgotten so long ago. Love was magic; it was as simple as that. But she still had the hesitant feeling inside of her. Mother. She couldn't be a mother to those boys. She couldn't be a mother to anyone. She was too afraid from her experience with her own mother. She did want to force a life onto them that they didn't want, she didn't want them to resent her like she did her own mother, she didn't was to mess up and make mistakes. But, truly, how could she explain that to two children?
After washing their faces, Regina gave a quick smile and stood. But she said nothing about what the boys had been referring to. She looked at them and said quietly, trying to hold back an outburst of emotions, "I'll be right back. Just stay here." She quickly left the room, shut the door behind her and leaned against it. She could finally breath and let that emotion out. She wasn't sure why it affected her so much, but that question scared her. A few small tears escaped from her eyes, but she forced herself to remain collected as she heard the sounds of Hook's voice coming from the bunk cabin where he was talking to Blake.
0-0-0
Hook leaned on the wooden rim of the top bunk as Blake lay in the bottom one. He faced away from the pirate, refusing to move or to speak. He could feel Hook's presence behind him and still refused to acknowledge it.
"What's up, my boy?" Hook casually stood by the bunk. Blake refused notice him or to respond. Slightly agitated, but still keeping his cool, the Captain continued, "Well, if you prefer not to talk, then you can just listen." Hook paused for a moment, hoping the boy would at least stir, but his stubborn air continued. "I'm assuming you still don't trust me for some reason, and I suppose that is your choice. But I am not one to be disrespected, boy. We brought you here to protect you out of the kindness of our own hearts. We didn't have to, but we did. So I suggest you stop lying around like a dead fish, get up and be a proper example to those other two boys who look up to you. Do you hear me, my boy?"
Blake shut his eyes tight, anger forming in every inch of his body. Suddenly, he turned around and sat up on the bed. He furiously responded to the Captain, "Stop calling me that! I am not your boy, nor will I ever be your boy! I don't ever want to be associated with a filthy, thieving pirate like you!"
Becoming slightly more threatening than necessary, Hook leaned over to meet the boy face to face. "You better learn to control your prejudices, boy. You know nothing about me."
"I know enough." The boy mumbled, his eyes drifting away from Hook's.
Becoming curious, Hook forced himself to back off. He wondered why the boy was so stubborn with him. Why he didn't trust him after everything that had happened. Surely Hook had earned his trust; he had the scar to prove it. He asked, "What is it that makes you hate me so much? You've known me no more than a day and yet you are already bent on loathing me just because I am a pirate. Who made you think this way?"
"I don't need to tell you anything."
"No you don't, but it doesn't seem like there are a whole lot of others who are willing to listen." Hook raised his brow at the boy. It was a rather harsh thing to say, but the boy could handle it. Any boy who had been in Neverland for as long as he had would not even be stirred by such a comment because he'd know that it was true. In Neverland, the boys were always alone with no one to listen to their pain, to hear their stories.
"Why would you be willing to listen?" Blake asked in a strong-willed, distant manner.
"I told you before, boy. You don't know me as well as you think." Hook smirked as he sat on the bunk beside the eleven-year-old.
Still refusing to look at the man, Blake uttered quietly his reason. "My father was a pirate once."
Hook's expression changed as he understood. "I presume he is where you get your view of pirates from?"
Looking up at the pirate with tears welling in his eyes, he replied, "My father is the reason I got trapped here in Neverland." Hook looked at the boy confused. The boy's emotions just suddenly began to sputter as he continued to pour out his story in front of the Captain. "We were going to travel the realms together, just the two of us. It was going to be our adventure. But, every realm we travelled to, he began to change. We began to run out of food and money, so my father began to trade with others. Soon, he was forced into stealing and pirating to help us survive, but I knew all along. He wasn't just doing it because he had to; he wanted to, he liked it."
Hook stared at the boy curiously. He asked, "How did you get here, boy?"
"When we came to Neverland, the Lost Ones were quick to find us and wanted to take me to the shadow. I thought he would fight for me!" Blake looked at the pirate with desperate, sorrowful eyes. Tears streamed down the his face. "I was his son! Why didn't he fight to keep me?" Hook could see the loss in his dark eyes. Even now, after all of this time, Blake was still confused to why this was so. He looked into Hook's blue eyes and said, "My father traded me for a bag of gold. He sold me to the Lost Ones, like I was nothing."
With concern in his expression, Hook placed a comforting hand to Blake's back. Unexpectedly, the pirate felt the young boy bury his head into the man's chest as he cried softly. Though surprised at his sudden gesture, Hook held the boy in his embrace and allowed him to cry. "Listen, boy," Hook said quietly, with his hand cupping Blake's head as he cried, "I cannot justify your father's actions, nor would I want to. But I can tell you that not all pirates are that way. Would you like to hear a story?"
"I guess." He said as he sat up and wiped his tears from his eyes.
"When I was a young lad, maybe a bit older than you, my father and I planned to do the same as you and your father. We were going to go everywhere and sail every sea possible."
"What happened?" The boy seemed to be getting engrossed in the story.
Hook sighed, "He left one day and decided not to take me along. I never saw him again."
"So, why did you become a pirate?"
"I was a determined young man, a lot like you. I believed that I could find him one day; that he never meant to leave me. At the first opportunity, I joined a crew that was leaving to set sail of the seas and travel different realms. I thought perhaps I could find him again."
"Did you?" Blake's eyes seemed filled with wonder and hope.
Hook, disappointedly, shook his head. "As I grew older, the thought began to drift from my mind. But I stayed with the crew and found a new love for sailing and the seas. You'd be amazed at the adventure and the wonder you feel when steering that helm, my boy. That is why I became a pirate." Hook smiled. "You see? We are surprisingly alike, and not all pirates are filthy thieves. Some just like the feeling of freedom that the seas give them. Now, come along." The sentimental moment seemed to be enough for Hook. He wanted to change the subject quickly. "Enough stories for one day. Why don't you join the others in my cabin. I'll be there momentarily."
Blake managed a small smile and nodded his head. He stood up and walked to the door. Turning to face Hook, he said, "Thank you. And…" He hesitated, "I'm sorry."
"It's alright." Hook nodded as he watched him leave the room. With a raised brow, Hook smirked. "You can come in now, love." He said with a laugh. He looked to the door as she showed herself. She leaned against the doorframe with a smile on her face. He stood up and walked toward her. He asked her, "How long where you listening?"
Still holding the bowl of dirty, brown water and with the partially wet rag draped over her arm, she looked at him, "Long enough." She set the bowl and the rag down on a small table and then returned her gaze to the man. Quickly walking back to him, she slid her hands to caress his face as she placed her lips onto his. She wasn't sure if it was still shock from the night before, from the question she was asked by the boys, the sincerity in which he had just told that boy the story of his past, or even a combination of them all. Her emotions seemed to be running wild after all of the time she had been holding it in and trying to control it. She felt as if her heart would burst. It seemed too good to be true; it seemed to be happening all too fast. But, did she really want to doubt this? If she even doubted her happiness for one fleeting moment, would she lose it all?
She felt Hook slowly part their lips from the kiss. He smile genuinely, but said nothing. Taking a hold of her hand he led her out of the cabin to return to the children waiting for them; waiting for an adventure.
Be sure to review and tell me what you think of the chapter. Where do you think this new "adventure" will take our characters?
Unfortunately, the next chapter will not be posted for a while. I will be heading on vacation with some friends for the week. Please stay patient and I will get you chapter 10 asap. Love you all! Thanks for reading!
