Chapter Twelve: Oh Brother
Emma was pissed. It had been over twenty-four hours since her and Hook's showdown and she was still fuming. She knew she acted childish by storming out of the library, she knew she shouldn't have let him get under her skin. She couldn't help it though, he hit too close to home. How was it possible for this man…this jerk…to be able to read her so well? To be able to see through all her walls and layers she had been able to put up carefully over the last few years. How was it that he could call her on her insecurities and personal issues when she couldn't face them herself?
Emma had let her anger stew all day. She practiced her sword fighting with Graham to help get her aggression out of her system, she appreciated the fact that Graham hadn't questioned her on her bottled up rage and just let her sword fight him for hours.
After her long practice round with Graham she had found herself calmer. She would head back to the library tonight and not let her hissy fit get in the way of all the work she had to do with Hook. She thought she had guarded herself quite well with him in the past but was determined to guard herself even more now in the future. No more small talk, no more talk about anything other than the issue at hand: Rumpelstiltskin.
Now she had been in the library for over an hour and Hook was nowhere to be found. Why the hell wasn't he here? She hadn't called him out and read him like a book like he did to her. What excuse did he have? She found her rage and fury coming back full force.
As she quickly flipped through the pages of the book in her lap she heard the door to the library open.
Her head shot up and she was greeted with Hook's smiling face.
"Well hello darling," he said slowly. He walked through the door of the library and Emma noticed his slight stagger.
So much for ignoring the asshole, she thought.
"Where the hell have you been?" Emma barked at him, making sure he could clearly see her irritation.
"Around," he said vaguely as he grabbed the closest chair to her and quickly plopped himself down.
Emma took in his appearance; he looked the same as always however his shirt was unbuttoned much more than usual and Emma had to force her eyes to stay on his face and not look down at the part of his chest that was being put on display for the world to see. She locked eyes with him and noticed his eyes were slightly glazed and he had a dopey look on his face.
"Are you drunk?" Emma asked, not quite believing that he had the balls to show up late and now clearly intoxicated.
"Maybe, are you going to take advantage of me if I am?" He quickly replied and gave her his signature wink, which was a little less smooth due to his inebriation.
"I've been waiting here for an hour and you've been out drinking? Are you even taking this task seriously?" Emma asked him annoyed and perhaps a bit harsher than necessary. After all he was only an hour late and she had stormed out on him the night before. She knew she was being bitchy but she was still bent about him calling her out last night.
"Of course I'm taking this fucking task seriously, however I am Captain Hook, I am not your servant you can order around. I come and go as I please and I'm not changing that for you princess," he replied nastily.
"And if I do recall your royal pain in the ass highness, it was your prissy ass that stormed out on me last night like a child simply because I'm the only one who will call it like it is to you. Can't handle the truth love?" He asked clearly wanting to pick a fight.
Emma paused for a moment before retaliating; she looked into his eyes and saw something there that she hadn't before. Underneath his edginess tonight she saw a deep layer of sadness. The realization of that surprised her and she opened her mouth before she had time to properly react.
"Are you okay?" She asked quieter then before and somehow (although she wouldn't admit it out loud) she somewhat cared about his answer.
He quickly shut his mouth and tore his eyes from hers. He pulled a flask out from his pocket and took a long swig. "I'm fine." He replied simply but with the undertone telling her not to push it.
"Like hell you're fine, you have the audacity to call me out last night, and now you are going to sit here and lie to me. If you are going to throw truths out at me then at least have the decency to not lie to me. I'm not saying that because I care about you as a person, because I don't and you are an asshole; but I don't appreciate people lying to me. So what happened? Couldn't get it up at the bar?" Emma asked frustrated now not only with him but with herself for pushing the subject.
"Please love, getting it up is never a problem for me. We could stop all this bullshit talking and I could show you if you would like." He said once again deflecting with innuendo.
"Fine, be a coward." Emma replied and turning her attention to back to her book.
"I'm not a fucking coward love. I'm sorry if I don't want to come in here and relive the fact that today is the anniversary of my brother's death. I may be a great many things princess but a coward is not one of them." Hook replied his frustration taking hold of his words before he could think about what he was saying.
Emma instantly felt bad for him, another surprising emotion. It surprised her and somehow made her feel lighter that somewhere deep inside Captain Hook he obviously still had a heart. He moved his good hand and scratched behind his ear clearly not knowing what to say after that confession.
"I'm sorry," Emma replied softly and she really was. Even someone as nasty as Captain Hook didn't deserve to have someone they cared about ripped away from them by death.
"It's fine; it was a long time ago." He said uncharacteristically quietly.
"Look, obviously I'm still deflating from yesterday and you are having an understandably shitty day; let's just take the night off and start fresh tomorrow. We can go back to before you made accusations to me about myself and before you made this startling confession to me." Emma said closing her book and feeling the need to leave the room and leave Hook's softer side behind as well.
"Ay," He replied taking his flask out again.
Emma stood up and walked towards the door, before she could stop to think of the consequences she turned back to see Hook still sitting the chair staring out the window into the distance. He looked younger somehow and much more lost. His usual cockiness and roughness gone.
"What was he like?" She asked quietly unable to help herself. Somehow she couldn't stop herself from hearing about the man the Hook obviously cared about.
He sat quiet for a minute and Emma was just getting ready to turn towards the door and leave, thinking he clearly didn't want to answer.
"Liam was everything I'm not. He was heroic; he served our king loyally and without question. When he was in the room his loud happy voice could be heard from all corners. He was kind, too kind I would say. He would do anything to help anyone in need and never expected anything in return. He took care of me, raised me and never complained not one minute. He was a good man to the deepest part of his soul. He would hate me for who I've become today, but then again I'm here and he's not. The only thing we shared was our parents and our love for the sea, other than that he was the complete opposite of me." Hook said. Emma knew he wasn't saying all these things to have her disagree with him and tell her he was a good man, because he wasn't. But a part of her wondered if somehow deep down inside the brothers were more alike than Hook let on.
"Enough about him though, do you want me to show you that I clearly have no problem getting it up?" Hook added after a moment's pause once again trying to hide his emotion behind his meaningless words.
Emma actually laughed out loud and was surprised when his eyes immediately turned towards her. She knew he had revealed too much, knew it didn't mean anything but somehow she was surprised that he did confide these few facts to her.
Emma also knew staying in this room and having any more deep conversation with Hook would be no good for either of them. She found herself being undeniably drawn towards this man and she didn't like it one bit.
"Good night Hook, I'll see you tomorrow." She replied instead and walked out of the library before she could do something stupid like go back and comfort him.
I know I know! It's been SO long! Since I've been working on my new fic (check it out!) I decided that I needed to keep working on this one. All my works that I start I do finish so you won't have to worry about this one being unfinished however I know it's taken forever. Should be updating quicker now that I'm back on track! THANK YOU for all the reviews they are what motivated me to continue!
