Coming Back to You

Chapter Ten

After Killian made multiple trips up to the deck carrying and emptying the waste buckets, then finished bringing down the last of the dirty dishes used by the crew into the galley and dropped them into the tub to wash them, Liam entered the room behind his brother and grabbed him roughly by his arm to turn him around to face him. The younger Jones was about to ask what was wrong, but Liam quickly put his hand over his brother's mouth to cut him off as he glanced towards the entryway and around the room to make sure they were alone before he released him.

"No one's in here," Killian stated as he shoved Liam away from him, then glared at him. "What'd I do this time?"

"Something I should have stopped the moment you opened your mouth," the older brother answered curtly, even though he hated being so cold towards Killian. "You're a fool if you think that woman up there is being kind to us for any reason other than to be hospitable. You can't speak to her again so long as she's onboard. Don't even look at her."

Killian looked at him with confusion as he replied, "Why the bloody hell would you care? Of course she's only being hospitable. She and her brother are guests onboard a ship full of ruthless pirates. I'm a slave, Liam. I haven't forgotten it. Why do you think I left so quickly? Is it really so terrible that I find her attractive? It's not like I would ever act on it. But what does it matter to you if I actually thought for a moment she could have been being kind for…"

Liam interrupted, "Push those thoughts out of your head right now. You can't. She doesn't and never could like you. I'm not trying to hurt you, Killian. You know that it's the last thing I ever want to do. I'm only saying this for your own good."

"Reminding me I'm worthless and that the only person in this world who will ever care whether or not I'm alive or dead is you is for my own good," the younger brother miserably responded as he turned his back on the other man, then began to fill the wash basin with the fresh water he had boiled to clean the dishes. "I see."

"You know that's not what I mean," Liam answered after he let out a sigh of frustration. "Captain Silver threatened your life, Killian. He noticed how you and that woman were looking at one another. If he even so much as catches you looking towards her direction, the punishment will be severe. Even more than usual. And what if he decides to make her and her own brother walk the plank. Silver doesn't like or trust her. You could cause her to lose her life too and I know you don't want that."

Killian paused as he turned his head in Liam's direction without actually looking back at him, then replied quietly, "I understand. Don't worry about it. She'll be gone within two days time and I'll never have to think about her again."

Liam gently laid his hand down on his brother's shoulder and gave it a squeeze, then with remorse he responded, "I am sorry, little brother."

"I think you mean younger brother," he said quietly in order to correct him. "Neither of us have been little for a long time now."

"You're right about that," the older Jones answered and then continued to help Killian with the chores.

The Hispaniola was a few days from reaching the Enchanted Forest and the voyage has only grown more uneasy for both Emma and her father while they remained onboard trying to avoid Silver, as well as the rest of his crew. A number of the pirates allowed themselves to get sozzled and the drunker they became, the more they had begun to hit on Emma and even to go so far as to attempt to ask her if she'd sleep with them. It made Emma sick and David angry. However, it wasn't until two evenings later that the situation grew out of hand.

David was standing on the upper deck speaking with Silver per the Captain's request while he steered the ship, as they talked about the land where the two guests were from. This was Silver's attempt to try to understand what it was about these stranger he didn't like, except that the man he didn't know was really a Prince didn't go into specifics about Storybrooke or about who lived there, and especially not about the fact that they were from another time entirely. All David could really say was that his land was small and secluded from the rest of the world. It wasn't a lie and the Captain didn't question him more about it. Instead they continued to talk about Silver's life as a pirate.

Meanwhile, Emma was finishing the afternoon meal after it had been served to her by Liam, who barely even looked at her as he did so. Yet he did speak to her enough to mention that Killian had finally been given permission to eat again, having noticed that she's been looking all over the ship in hope of getting a chance to see that his younger brother was alright. Liam was grateful that she cared, yet he continued to be suspicious of her motives as she was nothing, but a beautiful stranger to them.

When she bent over to set the dirty dishes after she finished eating down on the floor of the deck near the mast she had taken to staying while they remained onboard, three of Silver's men appeared behind her as they began to heckle her until one of them reached out to trace his finger along her spine. Emma immediately batted his hand away, then shoved him backwards against the side of the ship. Out of instinct, she raised her hands to use her magic against them, but quickly remembered she couldn't risk it unless it became absolutely necessary. David was unaware his daughter was in trouble.

She slowly lowered her hands again and backed up towards the side herself while the cruel drunkards started to advance on her, surrounding her like she had become their prey, then she spoke up coldly saying, "Back away and leave me alone, or so help me…"

One of the men cut her off as he sneered mockingly, "What will you do, pretty? What could you possibly do to…?"

All of a sudden, Killian appeared behind them when he swiftly struck down one of the one closest to Emma with a single punch to his head as the man was about to throw himself over her to kiss her, then grabbed hold of another by the front of his shirt and fought with him until Killian was able to throw him overboard. Emma cried out for him in fear and when David heard the commotion from above them, he ran down to try to help his daughter. Unfortunately, the third of the men came up behind Killian, as did several more of the pirates, and they held him while he struggled to break free of their grasp. Once their Captain came down behind the man they believed was the woman's brother, the pirates pulled Killian between them, then shoved him down to his knees at Silver's feet and held him before him. Emma struggled to go to him, but her father held her back.

"What happened here?" Silver finally asked, glaring down at the younger of the two slaves, while Killian did the same as he glared up at him too. "Speak!"

"This bastard broke my nose and threw Boyle overboard, Captain," the man Killian had struck first replied angrily, then bent down to punch the slave hard in his back just as Liam appeared amongst the crowd and struggled to get to his brother through the crowd surrounding him. "We were only talking with the lady and he came out of nowhere to pick a fight."

Emma shouted, "That's a lie! He was protecting me because your men got themselves too drunk and thought they could hit on me. One of them tried to attack me, but Kill… this man stopped him."

The older Jones looked between Killian and Emma until he turned to the Captain again as he nervously responded, "Captain, please. My brother would never attack your men without good reason. I beg you, please don't punish him."

"I thought that I made it perfectly clear to you what would happen if he were to go anywhere near this woman, Liam," Silver answered brusquely. "He defied me again even if he was just defending her honor. And now he will be punished for it. You should have been more cruel when you warned him, rather than coddle him as you always do when you try to protect him from himself. Men, string him up! Don't bother with removing the shackles first. Bind him to the main mast and bring out the lash."

"No!" Emma cried out again while David continued to struggle to hold her back even more as the pirates pulled Killian to his feet again and dragged him over to the mast to do as their Captain ordered. "You can't…! Stop!"

While Liam remained standing where he was a few feet away from the strangers and bowed his head in despair over what was about to happen, David spun his daughter around to face him again if just to keep her from staring at the terrifying scene before them and held her tightly as he whispered bleakly, "Emma… You have to calm down. I know you're scared, and… and angry you can't help him. Believe me, so am I. You have magic and you can't even use it, I know. But remember, you can't change what happens to…"

The Savior interrupted him furiously until she quickly lowered her voice again as she snapped, "But we've already changed it! This wasn't supposed to happen to him. Yet it is because I messed up… again. We never should have stayed onboard this ship after we discovered Killian was here. We could have found someone else to get us to the Enchanted Forest. There were other ships there at that port."

"You're right, but we can't go back now," her father quietly replied in worry as he pulled her into his arms and held her close, then laid his hand over the back of her head to try to comfort her the only way that he could. "This is not your fault, Emma. It isn't. Hook would tell you this if he could. Our Hook I mean. And surely Killian now would too."

"I... Dad," she responded softly, then buried her head in the crook of his neck and began to weep silently despite her struggle to hold her pain inside, especially when the first crack of the whip struck Killian's back as he let out a small cry in effort to stifle his own anguish.

Liam turned his head to look back at the strangers coldly while his brother's beating continued, not having heard a word they had spoken amongst themselves. He didn't say a word to them and within a few minutes, he just walked away to leave them be. The older Jones moved to stand off to Killian's side several feet away from him until Silver and the crew were finished punishing him, hating himself for being unable to anything to help him while he waited.

Finally after twenty lashes, Silver shouted for his first mate to stop their brutality, then tuned his head and nodded towards Liam to indicate they were done. He then simply headed back to the upper deck to take over the wheel again while the rest of the crew went about their business and fun as if nothing ever happened. Immediately, Liam took the dagger that was handed to him by the ship's first mate and used it to cut his brother down as he took all of Killian's weight against himself when he collapsed into his arms. The younger man was conscious still, but only just. Even though Emma and David wanted to help the brothers as Liam carried Killian below to tend to his wounds, they didn't dare move to do so, knowing that Killian's anguish now was because he had conversed with Emma and had tried to help them in the first place.

So, Charming helped his daughter to sit down, then sat beside her as he took her hand within his own while neither of them spoke again for the rest of their voyage. It wasn't long before exhaustion and weariness, despite her struggle to remain awake in fear of the images she knew would haunt her mind, overpowered Emma's anguish over having to witness the man who loved her so deeply suffer to keep her safe, even in a time when he didn't know who she was. Finally, she laid her head down in her father's lap as she slowly fell into an uneasy sleep. David simply rested his head back against the mast behind him and tried to do the same, knowing they both needed the rest before the long walk ahead of them among treacherous terrain within a world two hundred years younger.

The only problem was, they had no idea where they were heading anymore. Rumplestiltskin wasn't the Dark One yet in this time and they didn't know who was, let alone where he could be found. He could only hope that the people living within the Enchanted Forest now knew of him as well as Rumple was known. And perhaps if they headed in the direction of his castle like Emma and Killian had done before, they would be lucky enough to find the answers they sought.