Season 3 Canon Compliant CS one shot set during Episode 10 - The New Neverland
For leiandcharles as thanks for answering my mighty need for a gif of Roger's punching that guy out in the last episode. Thanks again! Also much love to kmomof4 for lending her eyes and brain to this ;o)
Hook stood on the deck of his ship, surveying the strange hamlet he once again found himself in through the lens of his spyglass when a flash of red and blonde came into view. He watched as she sat at the overlook point on shore, her gaze fixed on the horizon, a pensive expression beset upon her brow.
The compulsion to go to her side gnawed at him even as he willed himself to stay planted at the helm. He'd struck an accord with Bae - Neal - and he meant to see it through.
"I made a decision when it comes to Emma… I'm gonna back off. For the sake of the boy. Let his parents have a fair shot without a devilishly handsome pirate standing in the way."
For the sake of the boy.
There had been truth in his words, but they were also layered in their meaning. Of course, Henry was the boy he'd meant… but so was Neal. Baelfire. He agreed to back off for that boy's sake as well. He'd already destroyed the man's family once, he couldn't bring himself to willfully do it again.
Which wasn't to say he'd given up in his pursuit entirely. He was nothing if not a scoundrel and a pirate, and he rarely, if ever, made agreements that weren't at least partially stacked in his favor.
He'd been honest with his parting words to Neal the night before, as well.
"Oh, don't thank me yet. You see, I'm in this for the long haul. You've already walked out on Emma once, not so sure she'll let you back in. Are you?"
As much as his former self - the good form, fight fair, navy lieutenant - might wish to believe otherwise, Hook knew his motives weren't completely altruistic. No. His offer to back off had been every bit as much about strategy as it had been a desire to make things right for his past deeds, and though there was an element of risk in his current circumstance, Hook felt certain that the odds would remain in his favor.
The odds that said Emma Swan would not be willing to give Neal a second chance.
Oh, it was risky, to be sure. The two had a history together, a son together. They had loved one another once, and most likely still did on some level, but Neal had betrayed Swan in the most devastating of ways, and Hook knew there would be no coming back from that.
Knew it as well as the fact that Swan prefered cinnamon in her heated cocoa, or that she'd been as tormented by the sounds of the Neverland nights as he had always been. Knew that despite finding her parents once again, she couldn't shake off the truths she had always believed of herself, struggled to reconcile them as the falsehoods they were; lies that told her that she always had been and always would be, lost, unwanted, unworthy, unloved.
Knew it as truly as he knew the whisper of her breath against his lips and the impassioned fire that had ignited between them when hers had met his in the heat of the Neverland jungle, and knew that moment had shocked her every bit as much as it had him in its depth of meaning, reforming the foundations of truth they had both been building their lives upon.
For him, the realization that love and a future filled with promises of life and happiness, and not just death in pursuit of his revenge were possible, and for her, perhaps that she didn't have to feel so lost, so alone, that there was someone who wanted her, someone who felt just as unworthy, but dared to hope for love in spite of how his past or her past had jaded them.
They were quite the pair. Quite the team, he'd once told her. She was still an open book to him in many regards, which was why he felt certain that when it came down to it, her decision wouldn't be Neal. That wasn't to say that he felt assured that she'd choose him, either, but once the decision was made… well, that's when the promised fun would begin.
The fun of wooing the Lady Swan openly and without guilt or accusation that he was tearing apart another family. Give himself a fair shot to salvage his relationship with Neal, or be welcomed a bit more openly and warmly by Swan's son and parents. If they didn't see him as the reason, the thing standing in the way, then maybe…
Yes. He'd agreed to back off for the sake of the boy, but perhaps for his own sake as well. Emma knew her own mind, and once she made it clear that Neal wasn't a part of her personal happy ending, perhaps it would give them a fighting chance for one.
He was in this for the long haul. Not just in his pursuit of Emma Swan, but after as well. An after that would place him at Emma's side, a part of something. Something that included Neal and Henry and the prince and princess and the whole bloody town. Something he'd had a taste of in Neverland as he watched Swan step into her role as leader and Savior. A role Hook knew still shook her and made her doubt herself at times.
So, perhaps it was for her sake as well.
For the sake of Swan determining for herself what she wanted, who she wanted, and standing confidently in that decision. To let her have a fair shot in speaking her heart and her mind to those who'd wish to believe they knew best, despite their well intentions.
For the sake of knowing that once her heart and mind had been decided about Neal, Hook's pursuit to win her heart would be because she'd want it. Want him.
All that remained now was the waiting.
Waiting for the sake of hoping. Hoping for the sake of believing. Believing for the sake of knowing that eventually Emma Swan might come to love him. For both their sakes.
