Of Monsters & Men

Chapter Ten

Back in the present day…

After Emma and Killian left the subway and made it back onto the streets of the city, they immediately hailed a cab so they could return to the safety of the Jolly Roger. Once they were again sitting in the back of a taxi and struggling to get their breaths back under control, Killian pulled his wife again into his arms and held her close. As her head rested against his chest, he listened closely to his fast beating heart until it finally slowed to its normal speed and then lifted her head to look into his eyes.

"Are you certain you're alright, love?" Killian whispered so their conversation would remain between them and that the driver wouldn't be able to hear them. "We've been in plenty of battles against vile wizards, evil Queens, demon children, wicked witches, bloody dragons, and worst of all… ourselves. But yet you still seem more shaken than when we've faced all of them."

"I suppose that's because… with all the villains we've faced, I understood them and knew what their motives were for wanting to hurt us," the Savior responded quietly as she sat back against the seat behind her, then took her husband's hand again in her own and gripped it tightly. "And as Savior, I was able to help them and bring a number of them to the hero side because they weren't true villains at heart. Like you. I even understood the people I went after while I was still a bail bondswoman and learned why they committed the crimes they did before I met them. But those men we just faced tonight… they didn't seem like your average thugs and evildoers. There was something else. Something about them that I didn't understand and it isn't sitting right with me."

Killian nodded in understanding and replied, "Aye, I know what you mean. I too felt something wasn't right. It's just that everything happened so fast, I didn't have time to process everything. But now that I can… I didn't want to say anything because I thought I was only feeling paranoid after all of the villains we've fought against together. I've been sensing we were being watched ever since we've arrived here and I've struggled to push my suspicions aside so that we could finally enjoy ourselves without worrying about yet another villain rising up to try to tear us apart again. Then those men attacked us and I thought perhaps they were the ones who might have been following us. However, as I'm now thinking back, I realize that one of them said something… something strange that perhaps he shouldn't have."

Emma looked at him worryingly as she asked, "What did he say? Do you mean that comment about you being a deranged maniac? That might have been strange, but…"

"It wasn't just what he called me, Swan," he interrupted before she could finish. "It was also what he said after the cruel remark. The leader stated something about another telling him that I was this maniac. Why would he say that?"

"Because those three weren't the only ones watching and following us," his wife answered in concern when it suddenly dawned on her what he meant. "It doesn't make any sense. I hardly knew anyone when Henry and I lived here before and neither of us have done anything to anyone to give them a reason to want to hurt us. Not to mention the fact that whoever hired those thugs to attack us believes you to be dangerous."

Before either of them could continue, the cab pulled over as the driver looked back at his passengers through the rearview mirror and told them that they had arrived at the harbor like they wanted. Emma quickly paid the man, then she and her husband climbed out and continued walking to where the Jolly Roger was docked.

As they did, Killian spoke again to continue on with their speculations saying, "The cop we ran into outside of the theater. He's the one who hired those men. He's the one who has been watching us ever since then."

Emma looked at him strangely as she responded, "I don't… He can't be behind this. I know that sometimes cops go bad the same as the rest of us, but it just… It doesn't make any sense. Why would he be doing this to us?"

"Think about it, Emma," he replied in frustration, though it wasn't geared towards her for not understanding how this man could be the villain of this story, but mostly at those trying to harm them again. "He was one of the men who came to arrest me for stalking you. And what I left out when I told you of how I made my way back to you, is that while I was being held within that brig, this officer and his partner interrogated me for well over three hours to try to get me to tell them why I was trying to hurt you. No matter how many times I tried to assure them I meant you no harm, neither of them believed me. Not that I expected them to, just as you didn't believe me either. Not that I blamed you. My point is, while his partner stepped out, Officer Peters used the term, 'deranged maniac.' He said that I was just a deranged maniac in a strange Halloween costume, disillusioned to believe that you could actually love me."

"I can't believe he said that to you!" the woman who truly did love him cried angrily. "I wish I had slugged him when we saw him the other night. I remember when I first spoke with him… about you stalking me when I didn't know who you were, that I felt a little uncomfortable around him. I could sense something was strange about him, but I shrugged it off. I felt strange about almost everything during that year as you said I had when you came to me and convinced me my life was all a lie. But the apprehension I felt when we bumped into Peters outside of the theater, it was because the same feeling came back and I still didn't listen to my instincts even though they were stronger than before. Killian, I'm so sorry. I should have trusted my gut. And I should have sensed you felt something wrong too. I just… I still don't understand why this cop thinks you're so dangerous and why he would hire a few thugs to attack us. You're my husband now and I've explained the reasons why I didn't remember you, as you explained why you were stalking me. Our stories might have been stretching the truth a bit because of the 'magical' circumstances surrounding them, but he shouldn't know that."

Killian sighed as he motioned for his wife to go on ahead of him as they stepped upon the gangplank to board his ship and then answered, "For now, I suppose it doesn't really matter why he's the one behind this. It's getting dark and we're back aboard a safe haven. I say we try to relax and enjoy the rest of evening. We can watch that movie you spoke of earlier. Sleepless in Seattle, was it? Then, tomorrow we can head to the station here and speak with this cop's superior to see what can be done. What do you say, love?"

She turned around as Killian followed her onto the deck, then leaned in to kiss him and when she pulled away again, the Savior smiled at him while she responded, "It sounds like a good plan to me."

"Thankfully, I have a spare glove here that will cover up the hand and the now large gouge inside of it from the thug's knife," he stated while he offered her a sad smile, then looked down at his false hand as he prepared to change himself into clothes that were more comfortable as Emma had begun to do after they walked down into their quarters, and ripped off the torn leather glove over the wood. "But when we return home, I'll be needing to have a new hand made for me. You don't suppose Geppetto would be kind enough to do it?"

"I'm sure either he or August would be happy to make one for you," Emma replied while she picked up the spare glove she saw on one of the shelves beside his safe when he pointed to it and pulled it over the wood, unlatched the hand from his brace, pulled his hook out from within his jacket pocket, then clicked it into the support instead. "That's much better. It's more you. Not that you're not yourself without it. You may not be able to wear it out there, but in here you certainly can. You are after all the Captain of this fine looking vessel. Come on, I'll help you finish getting undressed. We have all night to watch the movie."

Early the next morning…

The sun had barely begun to come up over the horizon when Killian stepped out on the Jolly Roger's deck wearing only his pants to watch the sunrise and to get fresh air as he did every morning out of habit from doing so for over two hundred years. Some mornings, Emma would join him, even when they were back home in Storybrooke. However, as he rose from the bed as gently as he could on this particular morning, his wife was still fast asleep beneath the sheets and Killian didn't have the heart to wake her after such a rough night. So he let her continue to sleep.

Once the sunrise had come and gone, Killian quickly jotted a brief note to Emma and left it on his pillow for her to find for when she did awaken, so she wouldn't be worried about him not being there. Then, he quietly got dressed the rest of the way, attached his false hand into its brace again, left his ship, and walked from the harbor into the city to get them some breakfast and coffees.

Unfortunately, as he made his way back across the docks while he carried the bags of food and a tray with the hot drinks all within his one hand, Killian suddenly began to feel the same sense of danger that he's felt since arriving in New York. And this time, he knew not to ignore it. He stopped walking and slowly looked around him for any signs of trouble, but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

The pirate Captain cautiously kept walking forward, but instead of moving towards the dock where the Jolly Roger remained cloaked with his wife still safely aboard her, Killian turned down another in the opposite direction to draw away whomever he knew was following him. As he slowly made his way down to the end of the dock, the danger finally made himself known when all of a sudden, an assailant jumped down upon Killian from on top of one of the boats docked beside him after having climbed up to its roof so as to surprise his target.

The bags and coffees spilled open onto the planks of wood as Hook struggled against his attacker and it was then that he saw the man was without a doubt the very cop who had been after him and Emma all along, dressed down in clothes that weren't his uniform so he wouldn't be recognized as a cop while he did the dirty work for himself, instead of hiring a group of thugs to do it for him.

While Killian was resilient and had been well aware of the danger before he was attacked, Officer Peters was also strong from being a cop for many years and learning how to handle himself within dangerous situations. And he had the upper hand as Brennan suddenly pulled a taser from his belt and attempted to use it against his target's throat to knock him unconscious, but Killian managed to block him at first when he saw that the cop had a weapon of sorts.

However, Peters then managed to push it roughly into Killian's lower stomach and pushed the button which sent thousands of volts into his body and the agony was a pain he's never felt before as it rendered him extremely weak. Brennan then finally forced it against his neck as the officer had tried to do before, causing Killian to cry out painfully once again for no more than a few seconds until the second electric charge knocked the target unconscious almost instantaneously. Killian's last thoughts were that of seeing Emma again in the moments she had opened her door to him after he had first arrived in New York and saw no recognition of him in her eyes, which was one of his worst memories of the city.

He smiled upon seeing her face up close after nearly an entire year parted from her as he whispered, "Swan. At last."

When he attempted to enter into the apartment, Emma immediately blocked him with her hand as she said tensely, "Woah! Do I know you?"

"Look, I need your help," the odd, albeit handsome, stranger before her answered with concern in his eyes while he looked deep into hers in hope that she would trust him just a little to get her to listen to him. "Something's happened, something terrible. Your family is in trouble."

"My family's right here," she responded curtly. "Who are you?"

Even more desperately, Hook continued to explain as he replied, "An old friend. I know you can't remember me, but... I can make you."

Without thinking straight about his actions, he foolishly planted a kiss on her lips until Emma immediately kneed him in the groin, causing him to groan in pain, and she shoved him back out into the hallway against the wall behind him as she asked fearfully, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Long shot," he answered with a strained voice while he grunted again. "I had to try. I was hoping you felt as I did."

"All you're gonna feel is the handcuffs when I call the cops," she responded in anger.

Killian tried to plead with her once more as he cried out to her replying, "Look, I know this seems crazy, but you have to listen to me. You have to remem…"

Before he could finish, Emma suddenly slammed the door in his face, but before he walked away, he could hear her son speak to his mother through the door as the boy asked her who was at their door, then he heard her speak again as she was breathing heavily while she answered, "No idea. Someone must've left the door open downstairs. Come on, let's eat."

Killian had walked away from her apartment feeling dejected, though mostly out of shame for his actions. Trying to kiss her was wrong and stupid because he knew beforehand that even if she did know who he was, he knew that she didn't love him and even believed she never would.

He couldn't have known then just how wrong he was not to believe in the impossibility of her love for him, as Emma did truly care about him much more than he ever thought she could despite her feelings being buried beneath Pan's curse, which had stolen her memories of Hook and her family from her and the false ones given to her from the former Evil Queen.