Emma ran, her breathing was rapid the forest grappled at her blue dress and tore at it lightly. Her blonde hair billowed out behind her, she didn't think about where she was going or what she was leaving behind she just ran. She didn't like to admit it, but she was scared. That man, Rumpelstiltskin terrified her, never had she felt so weak in the face of another person. Well, she had once, when she was a lot younger, a lifetime ago.

The forest separated out slightly and Emma came to a halt before a river. She bent over her hands on her knees as she tried to regulate her breathing. For the first time she looked back behind her. As she did the realisation of what she had done dawn on her. Slowly she straightened back up and tucked her hair behind her ears. "What have I done?" she spoke aloud. I just left him. I abandoned him. I didn't even try. I'm meant to be a hero but instead I acted like a coward, I left him to his death. I'm stuck in the past all by myself...

Emma took a deep breath and tore her vision from whence she'd just come. She knelt down next to the river and took a drink from it. She stared at her reflection till she could see it no longer, invisible to the world. She recalled back when she was in the foster system and she had first discovered how to control her powers. How she'd disappear for days, hid away so she didn't have to go to school, she would sneak around shops and steal food to eat and follow families around and acted as if she was part of their family.

Right now, without her reflection, she felt like that little girl again. All alone and scared, because she realised that these people weren't her family and she was just a little girl who could turn herself invisible, and she was probably better off invisible because nobody wanted her when she was visible and she was good for nothing. She had failed herself. She wanted to save people, and she had just abandoned Hook. He was dead and it was all her fault.

Her reflection came back as she was no longer invisible and she could see the tears falling down her face. "Come on Emma. You're stronger than this. You are fine. Everything will be fine. Give it a couple days, go back, make a deal, get back to your own time." She wondered what past Killian was up to and whether or not he felt anything when his current (future?) self died in the same time-stream as his.

The day was getting dark and Emma knew that she was lost, she had no hope in locating the boat. So she headed back into the forest and found a suitable location and hunted around for wood that would be decent to make a fire.

The night had settled in long ago and Emma's stomach was growling ferociously. She'd managed to make herself a shelter of sorts to protect her from the rain that was pouring down. She'd used her strength and had gotten heavily foliaged branches and arranged them like a tepee over her head and fire. The onslaught of rain wasn't very surprising to her, it matched her mood, it was to be expected.

A bird flew over and she thought briefly about following it and trying to capture to eat, but the idea made her feel slightly sick so she felt better of it. There was a snap of a twig, her head jolted upright at the sound. To see by the orange glow of her fire someone appear out of the brush opposite her.

"Miss me, Savior?" he croaked.

"What the hell?" Emma exclaimed as she quickly jumped over her fire and out of her shelter. She wasted no time in grabbing Hook and pulling him into a hug he let out a slight groan of pain, "You're alive! I thought you were dead!"

"Guess you did miss me then," she almost felt him smirk. She stepped back out of the hug and felt her cheeks reddened embarrassed. She went to go hit him but then noticed the state he was in. He was bleeding out of the corner of his mouth, there was dried blood down the side of his face from his head. His one good hand was clutching his ribs. His hair was soaked and clung to his head, in fact his whole self was drenched.

"I'm sorry, I left you. I shouldn't have done it," she rambled. "I should have stayed and helped. I shouldn't have run away, I am so sorry,"

"It's fine love," he assured her.

"How are you alive?"

"You forget, love, I can turn into anything. I turned into a bird and flew away," he smiled at her even though it hurt to do so. "I excel at surviving you should know that."

Her hand came up to inspect his head and she went up onto her tiptoes to do so. He watched her through his eyelashes the way the rain drops were trailing down her head it was hard for him to imagine that not that long ago the two of them were at each other's throats, enemies, and now here she was concerned for his safety and he hers.

"Does it hurt?"

"Aye, but I'll live,"

"I really am so sorry for running,"

"It's fine love,"

"It's not, I'm the savior and..."

"shhh," he said as she flatted her feet onto the ground. "I wouldn't have expected you to risk your life for a villain such as myself."

"Umm...let's get under my shelter and out of this rain, I'm sure we'll both be able to squeeze in."

They sat impossibly close to one another their shoulder squished up against the other. The only sound was of the rain hitting the ground until Emma spoke "I'm glad you're not dead" she admitted,

"Me too," he said then quickly added "Thank you, lass."

Another silence fell over them, Hook shuffled himself to try and get more comfortable and winced at the pain from moving.

"We need to get you to a hospital," Emma told him, as she turned her head and saw his face wince.

"I'll be fine, love, just give me a while I can shapeshift myself healed,"

"You can do that?"

"Partially, takes a while, doesn't completely heal up but gives me time to heal without pain,"

"Oh."

"Yeah...," he sniffed and fiddled with his hook slightly, "We'll be able to find another way back Swan,"

"It's fine," she sighed. "In all honesty Hook, I am not too worried about getting back. It's not as if there is anyone there to miss me. I have what? one friend? No family. No home. There is no one for me to get back to. If anything it'd be nice to have a break from chasing down the bad guys. It's you who needs to get back."

"Aye," he nodded. "But only to reunite Grace with her real father"

"What?" Emma's green eyes were wide looking up at him with confused amazement.

"You're right, Savior, she deserves to know her father. I can't just hold onto her, she isn't mine, she never was and never will be. Getting beaten by the man who took my family away from me, reminded me of how that felt. I can't take her family away from her. All the stories tell us how villains don't get their happy ending, she isn't mine, never could be, I have no hope in having a family again. She does."

"That's not true. You can and you will, you're a good man. I don't think happy endings are limited to whether you are a villain or a hero, it'd be nice if that was the case, I might actually get one."

"You will Swan, you deserve one more than anyone,"

Emma just shrugged in response.

"We've come quite far you and I?" he chuckled. "To think mere days ago you wanted me dead,"

"You wanted me dead," Emma corrected,

"What? No, never," he said. Emma eyes squinted slightly as if to see the lie but she could only see the sincerity.

"I never wanted you dead, either. Just wanted you to stop, you know," she shrugged. "Life's complicated, never wanted to be a hero got kind of thrown into it. So what's our plan?"

"Sleep first Swan,"

"There's not enough room,"

"I have a shoulder you can rest your head on...don't give me that look, you're tired, take my shoulder."

She didn't. Not straight away but soon her eyelids began to droop as did her head and before she knew it her head had fallen to his shoulder her body ever so slightly closer to his; he smiled at her and wished nothing more than to rest his head atop of hers and fall asleep also but he needed to keep watch. He feared Rumpelstitskin would be looking for him.

He hadn't been able to stay awake, he was so physically exhausted he just dropped. He awoke when he felt the figure under his head and arm stirring slightly. His head was on top of Emma's his arm wrapped around her tightly and even though they were both sitting she was snuggled slightly into his chest. He heard a content sigh come out of her and then moments later he felt her go rigid; she was completely awake now.

"Morning," he said his voice groggy,

"Morning," she replied her voice just as groggy and he found it strangely endearing. She lifted her head and he moved his and then she quickly scrambled out of their shelter, he looked up at her the early morning sunbeams illuminating her from behind. He couldn't help but look at her, caught off guard by her beauty. He had always known she was good looking, but only now he realise she was truly beautiful.

He cleared his throat and felt himself blush slightly at the thoughts racing about his head almost as if she was the one with mind-reading powers and not him. "How are you feeling?" she asked him as she stretched out the kinks from sleeping sitting up.

"I'm perfectly fine lass,"

"Your injuries?"

"I'll be fine lass, no need to worry."

"I'm not," she said almost too quickly. He pulled himself out of the shelter and groaned at the way his muscles protested to the movement.

"Let me just look at the damage though love, before we set off," he told her as he shed his coat and she took it from him. Emma just expected him to lift up his shirt she didn't expect him to undo the buttons and take it off. His lean muscular body was on display before her, it was covered in dry blood and horrendous dark bruises and cuts.

"There's a river not too far from here," she stated and was caught off guard by how breathy she sounded.

"Lead the way, and thanks, I know," he said as he looked down at his torso and back at her giving her a wink.

"Shut up," she told as she blushed and hurriedly turned around.

He chuckled and followed behind her, "Aren't you going to berate me for reading your mind?"

"I can't stop you,"

"That you can't love, but it wasn't your mind that I read. Your green eyes and face said it all."

"Shut up Hook."

He just chuckled in response and he even though he was limping he still walked with a confident swagger and a giant grin on his face over the fact that he has managed to get Emma Swan flustered over his body. Even though it was a rather murky morning the sun was still trying to break out and he was in a wonderfully chipper mood despite how much his body ached and the pain he was in.

As he sat down by the river and cleaned off the blood he watched Emma out of the corner of his eye. "You look like something is plaguing you lass, care to share?"

"If we get back, what happens then? With you?"

"In all honesty, love, I don't know what's going to happen. It is not easy to change ones self, I am setting Grace free and then...you won't have to fight me anymore if that's what you're worried about. But I'm not just going to become a hero, it doesn't work like that."

"I know. I just wanted to know where we stand,"

"And it's when not if," he told her, "have faith. We need to get back to my boat and then we'll head back, get some food, and then see where we'll go from there."

"Right..."

"It'll all work out in the end Swan, I'll get you home," there was pause before he corrected himself, "I'll get you back to where you belong. But I know you'll find your home soon enough, sometimes home isn't always a place."