Phillip's POV

Phillip woke to the sound of low whistling, his body sore and aching, while his head felt as if it weighed a ton. Wincing in a great deal of pain, the prince put his hand to his forehead as he opened his eyes slowly. Upon his forehead he could feel a large lump taking up a good portion of the left side of his head. It stung and he let his hand fall down to his side. He slowly took in his surroundings, eyes sweeping the area for Aurora. Deep down he had the feeling that his search would be pointless and that she would be nowhere to be found. He could not place why he felt this way, not really, but it was there in the pit of his stomach - worry swallowing him in a turbulent sea. He tried to recall what had happened before he had fallen asleep, but the lump on his head told him that maybe he hadn't actually fallen asleep willingly. These thoughts, however, were interrupted by the pirate's voice, suddenly filled with a worry that Phillip had yet to hear from him.

"I certainly hope you slept well. I haven't slept a damn wink since you've been out, Prince, nor have I had the time to relax." Killian was looking into his hook, which glinted in the sunlight that shone through the rustling trees. He looked the part of a man who had not had enough sleep in several nights. But, in all the time that Phillip had seen Killian, he had never noticed the heavy bags of exhaustion that had now formed, nor had he noticed that look in his eyes that told him all he needed to know.

"She went up the beanstalk on her own, didn't she?" The prince asked this tentatively, unsure of what sort of chord this might strike with the pirate. He felt a dull ache in his heart as he thought of Aurora climbing the beanstalk by herself. He wondered why Killian hadn't gone up with her, but his thoughts were interrupted when Killian took a seat across from him.

"She wanted me to protect you while she went up there," his voice sounded near monotonous, so void of emotion that Phillip almost wished that he would say something sarcastic to ease the tension between them. He could not deny that he had known that Killian had disliked him from the minute Aurora had introduced them and that he had only tolerated him because he had been meant to marry her before everything had gone to hell because of Regina. He also couldn't deny that he had noticed the way he looked Aurora in the same manner in which he had once looked at her - it now felt like it had been ages ago. "I should have followed her the moment her feet left the ground, but I couldn't just leave you down here on your own. I'm not that cruel. Besides I wanted to... Well, it doesn't matter anymore." Killian dug his hook into the dirt and shook his head. "We had you tied up when she left, but I didn't think you'd be much of a threat to me if Cora decided to control you again." This made the pirate smile weakly, perhaps as if there were some joke in the memory of the last time he had been controlled, however Phillip couldn't even remember enough to decide if there was actually something funny about it.

Phillip nodded, stretching his muscles a little. He still felt sore all over and now, after hearing Killian mention his being tied up, he could feel where the rope had dug into his arms. He opened his mouth to complain, but stopped himself short. There were other things that he needed to worry about besides the pain he felt. His mind flew to Aurora and the last time he had seen her and the image of her fear stricken face surfaced from the rest of his memories. He bolted as it came to him - how he had almost killed her before Killian had stopped him. "Why didn't you follow her?" he asked, speaking more quietly this time than he had done so earlier. "I know what trouble I have caused, Hook, and I don't deserve this treatment."

The pirate raised his eyes and looked at him with pools of blue that reflected his surprise. No sooner had the surprised surfaced did he shake his head and say, "Aurora seemed to think you deserved it, and I am in no position to believe that she is a liar." Again, his voice lacked the sarcasm Phillip had so quickly become accostomed to and he wondered what had occured while he had been out. "I don't think she would have ever forgiven me for leaving you down here to your own devices as she also seemed to believe that Cora would stay away from you if I were here."

Phillip tensed at the mention of Cora. "But you can't, can you?"

Killian hesitated and then said, "No." Then he added, "She'll want to get rid of you that you've already fulfilled your purpose."

"And that was?"

"Well, she wants to kill Aurora." He said it so smoothly that it suddenly made him feel uncomfortable. Apparently Killian had had plenty of time to think this all over, but this didn't make the prince feel any better about their current situation. "I thought that I had solved the problem when I stopped you, but I was wrong. Cora didn't leave me very many options as to what to do with Aurora. However, although the giant is up the beanstalk, I think that is much less to handle than whatever Cora would have had in store if I had left her here with you."

"And she wants to kill her why?" Phillip was less concerned about the prospect of dying at Cora's hands and more about Aurora. He couldn't think of why someone as innocent as Aurora would be the target of one of the most evil women he had the displeasure of coming into contact with. She seemed to be worse than her daughter and Malifecent.

Killian looked Phillip over and then suddenly looked into his hook at what was probably his own reflection. "She wants to kill Aurora because of me."

"Because you love her, right?" The words were easier to say than Phillip would have liked them to, but he knew why the struggle to say them wasn't there: he had noticed the way that Killian acted around Aurora just as he had noticed how the woman he loved had tried to keep herself from falling in love with the pirate. He couldn't even be upset at either of them, especially Aurora, whom had been under the impression that her true love had died right before her very own eyes. Now, he didn't know very much about the Captain, but he didn't seem to be the sort of man to fall so deeply in love with several different women. Flirting? He wouldn't put such a thing past a pirate, but to be so deep in love that he looked as worried as he appeared now? "I know it's true," he said before Killian even had the chance to respond. Instead, the pirate just let his head nod slightly as his eyes went from his hook to the beanstalk, which towered so high above them that Phillip wondered if Aurora had even managed to make it to the top.

"We can't let her die."

It's about time that Phillip got a little chapter of his own! And with Killian no less. I certainly hope that this chapter didn't bore you to death. And if it did, tell me and I'll work harder. Also, tell me if there should be more chapters through his eyes or not. I know this is mainly a Sleeping Hook fanfiction, but some of you might be wondering how Phillip feels about... Well, everything. Tomorrow I will post the next chapter. Shocker right? -J