10. until I met you

Prompt: "Looks like we'll be trapped for a while…" Maybe in Neverland?

A/N: 3x06 canon divergence, where Neal was not a part of the Neverland arc. ~1,4k words.

Emma opened her eyes with a considerate amount of effort, a wave of dizziness washing over her. She blinked rapidly, grunting as she pressed herself up onto her side with one elbow. Next to her lay Hook's body, motionless except for the gentle rise and fall of his chest.

''Hook?'' She moved to sit on her knees by his side. Her hands grabbed his arm, shaking it in an attempt to wake him from his slumber. Creases in her forehead appeared as she frowned when he didn't respond to her touch. ''Hook, wake up!''

She wasn't worried, damn it.

He finally stirred, his blue eyes immediately searching for her face as soon as they opened. He looked just as disoriented as she had felt upon waking.

''What happened? Where the hell are we?'' While asking these questions out loud she realized he probably knew just as little as she did.

This was when he sat up and his gaze left her eyes, darting around the place they had found themselves in. She followed his example. It was a large cave, with seemingly nothing but rocks and just the two of them in it. They were stuck on a pillar, perhaps a hundred feet across from what looked like the entrance. A strange, blueish glow colored the entire area.

''Echo cave.'' His voice was a whisper, accompanied by a sigh that indicated sorrowful recognition. ''Pan must have drugged us while we slept in order to get us here.''

''What, you know this place?''

''All too well.'' She could see how his eyes grew a shade darker at the memory. Both of them got to their feet, only now certain enough about the steadiness of their legs. ''I've lost half my crew inside those rock walls.''

Emma's breath hitched in her throat, her pessimistic nature rushing to the surface. No. No way it ended like this.

''Please tell me there's a way out.'' She sounded frantic and she didn't care. The mission to save Henry was not completed yet, and she wouldn't let it end like this.

''There is. But the only way is to reveal a secret.'' He was avoiding eye contact, something quite unusual for him.

She paused. Seriously? Then why did his entire body language suggest it was all doom and gloom?

''A... secret? That's all?'' A look of disbelief crossed her features. This sounded far too easy to be true.

''Your darkest secret.'' He immediately corrected her, confirming her suspicions. ''Echo cave derives its name from an old saying... "the deeper the lie, the more truth in its echo." The cave demands that you reveal a truth about yourself. A secret you would never admit to anyone.''

Emma had closed her eyes briefly, cursing these fairy tale realms and their magical traps. If they just would have been imprisoned in a place with a lock, she could have simply pried it open. But no such luck.

''This is ridiculous.'' Her utterly unamused voice sounded exactly the way she felt.

''Don't kill the messenger, luv.''

''Why would we even be here if it's possible to get out just by spilling our guts?''

''Because this is what Pan wants.'' His eyebrows shot up to illustrate the dramatic nature of the demon's plan. ''He wants us to reveal our secrets. He believes once we do, our secrets will destroy us.''

''So, what? Someone tells their secret and they sprout wings?'' Honestly, she wouldn't be surprised, considering everything that she had witnessed since the day she learned magic was real.

''I don't know the particulars, only what I've been told.''

''This is insane. I'm not doing it.'' Her stubborn streak was taking control. It was only now starting to dawn on her that she desperately did not want to reveal her darkest secret to Hook. The realization of what that truth encompassed was something that even terrified herself. She absolutely was not willing to share it with the man who had set that realization in motion in the first place.

He furrowed his brow, his eyes narrowing at her determined refusal, which must have seemed like an unreasonable overreaction to him.

''Well, in that case... looks like we'll be trapped for a while, because none of the others even know of the existence of this bloody place.''

''I'm sure you wouldn't mind, this seems like that perfect bonding experience you've been waiting for.'' This wasn't fair and she knew it. But she was pissed off about this entire situation and she couldn't help but take it out on him with an overdose of snark and sarcasm.

''You think I'm enjoying this?'' The sincere hurt in his voice surprised her, and she was taken aback by the sudden increase of volume for a moment. ''You may not believe it, but I really do want to help all of you. We are achieving nothing by being stuck here.''

He was right. She knew full well that she had to put aside her own feelings in order to get out of here to rescue Henry, but building up the courage to do so was not an easy task.

''Besides, this whole thing is just going to make you run away from me again afterwards.'' He sounded small, defeated, painfully sure about the consequences of his upcoming revelation. ''But I suppose that's just a chance I'm going to have to take.''

She looked at him with wide eyes, her anger ebbing away quickly, drowned by his genuine attempt to sacrifice his chances with her for a way to continue on their mission to save her son.

''The kiss is what exposed something I haven't been able to admit to myself. My secret is, I never thought I'd be capable of letting go of my first love... of my Milah... to believe that I could find someone else.''

She didn't know what she'd been expecting, but this wasn't it. She stood there, gazing at him motionlessly. The echoes of the appropriately named cave endlessly repeated his confession into her ears.

''That is, until I met you.''

The tension left her features and her lips parted, but there was no opportunity to say anything in response. A loud noise interrupted them, the deep rumble of the ground shaking beneath their feet. They almost lost their balance while part of a bridge appeared to build itself from previously non-existing rocks. As soon as they found their footing and the earthquake stopped, the silence between them was deafening.

It had worked. Which meant there was no excuse for her not to reveal her secret as well. So here it was. The moment of truth, literally.

''You... I-...'' She stammered briefly, desperately searching for the words that weighed so heavily on her heart.

''You were right, that day at the top of the beanstalk. I was in love, once. My secret is... I don't think I'll ever recover from it. All of that pain, I've... always been able to push it away.'' She could feel it rushing back, all of it, while she spoke the words she had been so afraid to say. Her gaze wasn't nearly as steady as his, as it kept avoiding the blinding blue of his eyes.

''But then you showed up and I knew it was gonna get a hell of a lot harder.'' Tears were gathering in her eyes, ready to spill over at any given moment. Every nerve in her body was tense, and she suddenly felt incredibly claustrophobic in between the walls she'd built around herself.

''The truth is... I don't know if I'm ever gonna be able to stop running. And the reason that I even want to do that after all these years... It's you.''

The sound of her own heartbeat banging against her chest was not even overshadowed by the noise of the rest of the bridge being built.

''I'm sorry.'' With an apology muttered under her breath, she turned away from him. Big steps quickly created distance between them, the way they had when she had first walked away from him in the giant's cave.

This time, however, he didn't have to wait long to follow her.

Emma was running now, and her confession had revealed that she didn't know if she could ever stop doing that. But he believed she could. And eventually, he would make her believe it too.