Killian had one of two choices to make. He could either continue on in with what he came here to do or abandon his task and leave. If he stayed- the concentration he once had would be obsolete thus causing suspicion and the risk of being found out. If he left- he would risk losing his mark altogether and failing. Then he'd have the repercussions of Gold to deal with along with a heartbroken and vengeful Emma. Not to mention a thoroughly enraged Ruby who was already out for his blood. Either way, he was thoroughly fucked.

He burst through the exit door and immediately b-lined to where Adam was blocking Ruby into her rental. She was screaming phrases of profanity at him as he twirled her keys around his finger and whistled a pleasant tune. Spying Killian coming towards them, he slid from the door and allowed him access to the pissed off brunette. Flinging the door open, Killian leant down into her space with an intense scowl on his face. "None of this is what it looks like." he growled in explanation. "So if you would be so kind in minimizing the name calling…."

"Fuck off!" she went to throw a punch but he darted from her hand. "I knew you were a fucking lowlife! You and Neal are exactly the same!"

A low menacing chuckle came from the back of his throat as he rocked back onto his heels. "See that's where you're wrong, love. I don't beat women for the sake of dominance and I don't go off and fuck some random stranger when in a committed relationship. I told you. None of this is what it seems."

"You. Fucking. LIAR! I saw you, you dumbass! If I wouldn't have come barging in and ruining your special fucking moment with your new blonde friend you'd be halfway down her throat by now!" Ruby hacked up enough spit to project onto his face which in turn pissed him the fuck off.

Killian straightened as he slammed the car door while wiping his face and grabbing the keys to her rental. He tossed them up, caught them in mid air and proceeded in chucking them across the parking lot.

"Hook!" Adam yelled in horror as he threw his hands out before him. "Now how in the bloody hell is she supposed to leave?"

"After I do." he spat. "Where's her phone?" he demanded as he made sure his cheek was completely free of Ruby's spittle.

"In my possession, but I'm afraid if I show you the bloody thing you'd fucking chuck that across the lot, too!" he admitted as he stared off towards the general direction of the keys.

"Buy me an hour." Were the last words spoken before he hurried across the lot and to his own borrowed vehicle. Its times like these that he missed the car sitting in his driveway back in Storybrooke. It was much quicker than the one Gold had provided him with for the time being and would have come in handy at this particular moment. He needed to get to Emma first and explain everything before Ruby makes him out to be something he's most certainly not.


Emma had her feet propped up on the back of the couch as she stuffed her face with cheese puffs. Normally she despised them, but fuck it. It's vacation. Two bottles of wine down gave her enough of a body buzz to forget all of her worries and laugh hysterically at the already very amusing scene in the 1991 film: Hook.

Captain James Hook: [holding a pistol to his head] No stopping me this time, Smee. This is it. Don't make a move Smee, not a step. My finger's on the trigger. Don't try to stop me, Smee.
Smee: Oh, not again.
Hook: This is it. Don't try to stop me this time, Smee. Don't try to stop me this time, Smee. Don't you dare try to stop me this time, Smee, try to stop me, Smee you'd better get up off your arse. Get over here, Smee!
Smee: I'm coming. I'm coming.
Hook: Stop me! This is not a joke! I'm committing suicide!
[Smee triggers the gun away from Hook's head, sinking the model ship in the pool]
Hook: Don't ever frighten me like that again.
Smee: I'm sorry.
Hook: What are you, some kind of a sadist?
Smee: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. How do you feel now?
Hook: [sighs] I want to die.
Smee: Oh, now, now.
Hook: There's no adventure here.
Smee: [hold out Hook's gun] You call this no adventure?
Hook: Death is the only adventure I have left, Smee.

A knock sounding at the door behind her head made her sigh in exasperation before rolling off of the couch to answer it. "You took the key with you, remember? Are you that drunk?" she mumbled as she opened the door. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped at the unexpected visitor at her doorstep. "Jones?"

"Hello, love. May I come in?" he asked motioning to the inside of the flat.

Still completely shocked as to why he was popping by at nearly 3 in the morning, she stepped aside to allow him passage. "Uh, yeah. Of course. Come on in."

Killian glanced at the huge flat screen above the fireplace and smiled to himself. His favorite film was playing and she was sitting here watching it. A part of him wondered if she still had that thimble that he was completely nervous about giving her. Or if she'd enjoy his own rendition of Captain Hook's line delivery. But alas, he wasn't here for a movie date. "As much as I'd have liked to, I didn't come here on a whim." he started as he looked to the table seeing the empty bottles and cheese puffs scattered across it.

"Okay?" she plopped down on the couch while sucking the orange powdered residue from her fingers. "What's wrong? Is Gold trying-"

"No no. It's nothing like that." he reassured as he shrugged off his jacket to toss to the couch. "Ehm, I actually arrived in London a few hours ago for an assignment. I had to go eh, Fabric. It's a club here. Right down the street actually."

Her brows furrowed at the familiarity of the name and just barely remembered why. "Fabric? I think that's where Ruby went to tonight." she mused as her attention turned back to his explanation.

"I was made well aware of that fact." he muttered with a scratch of his head. "She eh… she found me… with my mark. One huge misunderstanding."

"Okay wait so… you had to go to a club for your hit? So that means…" her gaze averted from his as her body fell back against the cushions in an unwanted thought. "A woman? You- you were with another woman?"

Killian rubbed the back of his ear and glanced to the movie on the screen. "Aye." he sighed.

A sound of disbelief was given as she bit her lip to keep from saying something stupid. Benefit of the doubt. Give him the benefit of the doubt. "Was she pretty?" she asked with a sniffle of distaste.

"Not my type of blonde."

"Oh? And what is?" she asked still very much annoyed with this conversation.

"Headstrong. Independent. Devoted. Passionate. Vehement. You." he concluded with a soft smirk to match hers that she was attempting to hide. "I can assure you love, no one can even remotely touch your beauty." he explained as he took the spot on the far side of the couch. "But I can't deny what you're thinking. The answer is yes. My main priority was to allure and to captivate. I had to secure the part of being some-"

Emma scoffed at his words before finishing his sentence for him, "Player?"

"Swan, there was no intimacy. At least nothing that mattered. No kissing. No hugging. No physical attraction. The only thing that happened was this-" he immediately moved closer to place his hand on her outer thigh. "This is the only touching that occurred on my side of things. I promise you… and there may have been a little nose tease, but nothing more."

The thought of his hands on another woman and his mouth being so close to someone else's lips was absolutely revolting. She understood it was part of his job, but she was sitting here tonight thinking he was still in Glasgow. Not attempting to charm the pants off of some other woman. Her hand pushed his off before worrying the zipper on her hoodie, eh his hoodie. You know what? Fuck it. It's hers now.

He knew he hurt her. It was inevitable with what he had done and what he would be doing if he were still there. This was just one of the many reasons he wanted out of this completely. He found happiness with Emma and it's beginning to seem like every mark he takes is to put a wedge between the two of them somehow. But he hasn't a choice in the matter. Not yet.

The silence between them was growing to a deafening sound and he hoped she would say something soon. He wouldn't pry. Not with this type of topic on the line.

Emma took a deep breath as she turned her head in his direction, but never met his eyes. "So, uh-" she shrugged with a protective smile to cover her true feelings before looking back to Dustin Hoffman on the TV screen. "Did you only decide to tell me because Ruby caught you or-?"

"No! No, of course not! I was planning on telling you everything after it was all said and done. I would have informed you of my location when I arrived, but I didn't want a distraction."

"Ah and there's that word again." she laughed entirely unamused. "I'm a distraction." she deadpanned.

"No that's not-" his head fell into his right hand as he sighed with a rub of his eyes. "I don't mean it in the negative, Swan. What I mean is," his hand fell to her knee but she pushed it off while bringing them into her chest, "When I go to do what I need to, I have to have a clear mind. I can't be thinking about you or what I'll be eating for dinner or when the next game is. I have to focus. With the line of work I'm in, one wrong move and I'm dead. You know this. This woman- Cruella, she uses poison to kill her victims. Now if I had preoccupied my mind with obsolete thoughts, I could have easily been tricked and I wouldn't be sitting here with you now. So to save the hassle of clearing my head, I isolate my mind and jump in head first." he explained. He could see that Emma was still unsure of his explanation, so on to the next tactic. One that could get him in deep shit if Gold were to ever find out. "Here. Let me show you something." he turned to take the jacket that lay behind him and pulled a folded envelope from the inner pocket. He tore it open and pulled out the few sheets of paper from inside. Laying them out onto the couch cushion that was now between them he glanced to her reaction and was pleasantly surprised by her interest. A good sign that she wasn't as pissed as he once thought.

"What are these?" she asked picking up the first page.

"These are what I'm given when I receive an assignment. They're mainly descriptive of the marks and locations that they've been known to frequent. Mostly unneeded and highly unnecessary information. I've been doing this long enough to know what to look for to avoid the fluff." he explained as he watched her every interested move and curious expression. He pointed to the third page that included her house layout and other random locations. "Usually I have to do an awful lot of digging to get this kind of information. Smee is good for that type of work. I focus more on this." he stated as his finger tapped the top of the page she was holding. "I go headfirst into these types of situations if it's a woman I'm to go after. If it's male then I have to be a bit more in depth. Like with Felix. I needed you with me as much as I hated it. I needed the trigger to set him off."

Her eyes scanned over the page reading a few of the lines as she went, "Her name is Cruella Henderson? She's 34 and seems to be completely fucking nuts! Wow! She actually murdered her family?"

"Aye and three husbands. She's quite fond of the male attention which is why she goes to the clubs. I just happened to fit her type." he explained. "She only goes for one thing. I happen to be very good at that one thing. I almost had her until Ruby showed up."

Emma glared at his glossed over sexual information, but kept the conversation moving forward. "I don't see how you could have possibly gotten away with this." He raised a brow to question her statement and lack of trust in his skill, but she continued. "It seems crowded and residential around here. How could you have possibly succeeded in this?"

He was relatively shocked by her knowing. He raised both brows in astonishment. "You're absolutely correct, Swan. But I'm curious." he pulled out one last glossy page and placed it amongst the others. "Given the information on this particular mark I'm interested in seeing what your plan of action would be?"

Emma picked up the picture of the blonde and raised her own brow. She was pretty but definitely gave off the psychotic vibe. "Well, beings that the city is too busy for shooting her in some back alley or stabbing her a million times, I'd want to give off the impression that it was accidental by her own means. Maybe even a natural occurrence? Seeing that she's gotten away with murder five different times off of the use of poison, I'd have to go with that. Beat her at her own game, but…. there's that one little problem of where to go to do it. You certainly can't do it in the club, there's too many people who could give testimony if they saw you. And given her look," she waved the picture in the air before dropping it down, "and description of her wealth, you can't take her home. There'd be cameras and security everywhere. Not to mention the-" she scanned the third page before tapping on a single line. "Three Dobermans she has at her estate that she's trained for attacking by her command. So you'd have to be very, very stealthy and furtive to be able to pull this off." she concluded.

Again he sat in shock and amazement of the expertise she's shown him. Given that she has absolutely no prior experience in this aside from smacking the shit out of Felix with a shovel, had spent all of ten minutes reading through the file and despises the work that he does, she was completely on the right track. Taking his jacket back in hand he reached into one of the many pockets to pull out a tiny vial. He raised it up to showcase his findings before stretching it over for her to take. "Arsenic is colorless, odorless, tasteless and relatively untraceable. Once in a person's system it causes a multitude of symptoms, all very painful. If enough is consumed it's quite lethal. That vial right there is potent enough to kill her with one drink. Given she finishes it without spilling the damn glass, she would most likely die within 24 hours.

She rolled the vial between her fingers in fascination before something clicked. "Wait. If you still have this then-"

"I missed my chance because of Ruby. Now because of her I'm to go back tomorrow night to do it all over again. She's expecting me. This only means I need to poison her before she does it to me. I've a feeling she's grown suspicious, but in her mind she's wanting the sex first." Emma's head snapped up in his direction at those words and was just about to yell when he raised a hand. "Nothing of the sort will happen, Swan. I just need to keep her occupied long enough to slip it into her gin." he explained.

"Occupied how?" she questioned in a low tone. Given the averted gaze back to the TV and the ear rub she's come to know as his nervous tick she received her answer in full. "I'm going with you and don't you dare say I'm not. This bitch has no interest in me so I won't be in any immediate danger. I can blend in with the crowd and still keep an eye on you two. If she's as horny as the damn file states then I'm coming to be sure she doesn't get too handsy. Like you said, she's only expecting you for one thing."

Killian sat back against the cushions and raised his hands in defeat. There was no valid argument for him to use and honestly this would be the least dangerous assignment she'd tag along for. "What are you planning to wear?" he asked arching his brow and giving her a side glance.

Smirking as she piled the papers into one stack, she gave a shy shrug, "As little as possible, but enough to keep you undistracted yet interested." Emma had straddled his waist and had taken his face in her hands to immediately claim his lips as her owm.

The kiss wasn't unwanted, quite the opposite actually. It was just a bit unexpected after the conversation they just had. His hands held her waist before moving around to her back and up the inside of the hoodie and tank, feeling her skin with the palms of his hands. He realized what this was halfway through when she completely took control of the tempo of the kiss and dominated his mouth with hers. They pulled apart a few beats later and he flashed a brilliant smile as he stared to her kiss swollen lips. "If I didn't know any better love, I'd say you were jealous?"

"Pshh, jealous? No." she scoffed. "I don't do jealous."

"Swan that was the most jealous kiss I've ever tasted." he teased. "I can't say that I blame you, of course. A devilishly handsome man like meself can't help the fact that women throw themselves at me feet."

"I'm not jealous." she repeated with narrowed eyes.

"Just a bit." he countered with a show of his thumb and forefinger along with a wink.

Emma laughed as she grabbed his fingers and weaved hers with his as she pushed his hand to the wall behind his head. "Definitely not."

"On the contrary, love." his eyes became hooded when her free hand wrapped around the back of his neck to bring him closer. "Swan-."

"Shut up and kiss me." she whispered as she released his hand to tangle hers in his hair. Their lips barely touched before the door came bursting open and caused them to pull them apart.

Adam was holding onto Ruby's waist to keep her from attacking on sight, but it didn't stop her from yelling. "Oh, go fucking figure! Let's get here before me to weasel your way into her arms and fill her head with a bunch of lies! Emma he was cheating on you! I saw him!"

"No. He wasn't." she replied in a calm voice. "He explained to me what really happened."

"Yeah and what was that? That it wasn't what it looked like? That what I saw was a huge misunderstanding?" she bit as she glared to the man Emma was still straddling. "He's exactly like Neal and I'm not going through that again! I can't watch you be tortured and humiliated for a second time with somebody else."

"Ruby." Emma urged calmly as she unstraddled Killian's waist and watched as he moved to the edge of the couch.

"No! This thing you guys have needs to be over. This relationship is futile. I thought at first that this man could be the one for you. That he could really turn things around and make you happy the way you deserve to be. I was wrong. He's never going to come back to you because he has a multitude of women here. He's keeping you close to fuck you and then leave. He's just like Neal and that's my thought on it. He's a sick individual who manipulates women into thinking what he wants them to. But ya know what, you asshole?" she yelled as her attention shifted to Killian. "I'm not falling for it! I've watched this happen to her too many times and I'll be damned if I don't speak my mind this time! She can hate me for saying this all she wants but you are nothing! You are a shitty human being and there's no coming back from that!"

"Ruby, stop!" Emma urged again.

Killian had stayed quiet and unmoving as he allowed her to vent. After all, this is how she felt because she didn't know the truth. He needed to change that. "You're absolutely right. There isn't." His arms were resting on his thighs and his hands were folded as he stared to the mess on the glass table. "Are you finished?" he asked smoothly.

"Why? So you can spew more lies from your disgusting mouth?" she spat as she finally smacked Adam's hands away.

"So I can explain meself."

"Explain what?! You fucking cheated! And I'm beginning to feel like I'm the only one who cares about this! Emma, seriously? How can you honestly sit here and believe these lies?" she asked begging for some sort of response that wasn't just a casual shrug.

"He's not lying." she muttered.

"What the fu-?" Ruby collapsed onto the floor in complete exhaustion from the way she's felt all night and being here listening to Emma's naivety was proving to be too much. She rarely ever cries, but here she was sobbing on the hardwood floor in front of two men and her best friend.

Killian rubbed his face with hands as he battled with himself in what to do. Really there wasn't any other way around it anymore. He either had to continue to keep his life a secret and have Ruby fill everyone's heads with continuous false truths… or he tells her the real truth. "Caithfidh mé a insint di." ("I have to tell her.")

Adam's face fell at his words. "Cad? Níl aon slí! Beidh ór a mharú! Us!" ("What? No way! Gold will kill you! Us!")

"Adam!" he warned. "I know! Ní féidir liom a bheith ina suí anseo ag smaoineamh go bhfuil mé rud éigin nach bhfuil mé. Is fearr liom a fhios aici an fhírinne ná é seo!" he explained. ("I can't have her sitting here thinking that I'm something I'm not. I'd rather her know the truth than this!")

Sighing, Adam collapsed onto the loveseat in defeat. "You're the boss then, yeah?" He didn't think it was a very smart decision on his part, but he understood the need to want to clear his name. "I just hope ya know what you're doin'."

Killian waited until Ruby had calmed down enough to begin. This was going to be harder to explain to her than it was with Emma, mostly because he was unsure of where to start. "What I'm about to tell you does not and I mean doesnot… leave this room. It's highly classified and you along with everyone else here will be in severe danger if you let it slip that you know. Do you understand?"

"Excuse me?" she asked rudely. "Classified? What kind of bullshit is this? I don't think-"

Slamming his hand on the glass table from extreme aggravation and making everyone jump from the sudden loud noise he yelled, "Ruby, do you understand?! This isn't some joke. This is real. This does not leave the knowledge of the four of us. I need to know that I can trust you. Completely."

Ruby was definitely shocked by his outburst and had gone quiet from the intimidating look plastered on his face. She's never seen this side of him and it was a bit frightening. Looking to Adam he gave a reassuring grin that seemed to calm her enough to nod. "You have my word." she squeaked unable to find her full voice.

"You want to know what I do for a living? What Adam does? Smee?" he asked as he tried to calm his anger. On her shy nod he continued. "They work for me and I work for an extremely dangerous man by the name of Gold or what I prefer to call him- Crocodile. He controls most of the United Kingdom without the knowledge of any superiors and he's not one to cross if you value your life. I'm just below him in rank. What I do is very dangerous and highly illegal, but effective in controlling the amount of free walkers that roam the streets. Who you saw me with tonight was someone I had been ordered to kill." he finished as he held out his hand to Emma for the vial.

"Wait. What?" she asked bewildered. "Kill? Li-like dead? Like… for real?" Ruby looked to Adam who just slowly nodded.

"I was supposed to slip this into her drink before you came barging over and ruining what I had created as a distraction." he explained as he held up the arsenic. "Cruella is a woman who has poisoned five people including her own mother and father. I had to seduce her to keep her busy long enough to pour this into her gin. I never got the chance because I had to create a whole different story to cover my arse in knowing you."

"Woah. Okay." her hands went to her forehead as she tried to process this information. "So… you kill people? Like… you- you murder? I've been associating with murderers?! Emma, you knew?!"

Emma slid next to Killian while nodding. "I've known since he left Storybrooke. This was the job I was pissed off at him for coming back to. He had a choice and he chose this." she explained.

"To save you." he mumbled in exhaustion turning his head to look to the blonde. "We've been over this time and time again."

"And we're not murderers." Adam added. "We're hitmen."

"Hitmen." Ruby deadpanned. "Like those people in movies who run around shooting everyone for information? With the helicopters and fancy gadgets and fast cars and endless amounts of money?" she looked off in the distance for moment as she vividly remembered the car sitting in Killian's driveway back home and the realization of how much money he's spent on things in the months she's known him. He's never worked a day in the months spent in Storybrooke and she always wondered where his funds came from. "Holy shit-." she whispered to herself.

"It's much less glamorous than that." said Killian. "It's a life of endless secrets and loneliness. You can't get close to anyone without the fear of waking up the next day to find that they're dead. Aikens and Smee are the only friends I've had for years. They're only alive because I risk my own life before risking theirs."

"He's the best boss there is." Adam added. "And a bloody natural if there ever was such a thing. I began a few months after Hook had."

"Hook?"

Adam laughed at the memory as he rubbed his chin. "He bloody despised it when I called him Captain. Fucking hilarious, it was."

"It's a nickname I received a few months in. Partly because of my sparring skills, but mostly because of Smee." Killian muttered with a rub of his face at Adam's laughter. "It took quite a bit of convincing Aikens here, along with everyone else in the bloody warehouse, to let the Neverland jokes alone because Will constantly followed me around and granted me every request I made. A hard worker that one and mighty loyal, but no one took me serious for quite some time because of it. He's been my assistant for nearly… seven, maybe eight out of the ten years I've been doing this."

"Okay, hold on here." Ruby waved her hands through the air before moving to sit on her knees. "How did Emma find all of this out?"

"I only know because I was kidnapped." Emma stated nonchalantly.

"Excuse me?" she deadpanned. "What?"

"Do you remember that spa trip you took with Belle?" Emma asked.

"Yeah."

"I was supposed to be there with you, but one of Gold's men-"

"McMillan." Killian corrected in a growl.

"McMillan," Emma began again, "knocked me out and I'm guessing the other-"

"This is what happened." Killian started as he cut Emma off in mere irritation. Not at her, but at the memory of reliving that day. "You three were to have a nice trip away from Storybrooke for the weekend. You don't remember because of Gold. He used some sort of… I don't bloody well know what it is, but it erases memories. I've-" he faded out before muttering in an almost inaudible tone, "seen it done. But it didn't work the way he wanted it to." he cleared his throat and adjusted his position on the couch before continuing on with the memory. "Adam, Smee and meself took advantage of you three gone to go and take out Gold. He had come to seek me out because I left without his knowledge and acceptance of the matter. He can't run a business without his best man and he knew I'd never return unless he had something over me head."

"Emma." Adam added.

"Precisely. So he took her at her most vulnerable which is when she was away from me. I couldn't protect her from his bastards and I had only found this out after arriving in New York and cornering the fucking traitor who sold me out."

"Ben Caldwell." Adam added again.

"That piece of shit fooled me for the last time." he growled. "I found out Gold had Emma just before I raised my pistol right between his eyes and-"

"Boss? Ladies present." Adam muttered while motioning to the blank and paled expressions of the two.

Killian blinked back the memory before rubbing his eyes. "My apologies." he mumbled at the feel of Emma rubbing soothing caresses around his back. Taking a small collected breath he dropped his hand to continue. "Long story short. I killed Caldwell and Douglas. Aikens finished off McMillan after we sparred and the arsehole tore me favorite leather." he grumbled. "That left only me and Gold. I could have ended it. I should have ended it. I just couldn't. I guess a part of me knew that if I would have killed such an important person behind the scenes then I'd never be safe and I'd always be on the run. So instead I made a deal to keep Emma safe. If I left and came back with him then he had to leave her alone. He physically could do nothing to hurt her. The deal still stands now, but he's trying every loophole in his arsenal to get rid of her… and by me own hand. Which won't happen because I'm more aware of his games than he realizes." he concluded as he rose from the couch. "Now you know everything worth sharing. Don't ask for any more because I won't give it. If Adam feels the need to share his personal stories then so be it. But don't ask me anything else." he muttered before leaving the room.

Ruby sat staring at the empty space on the couch in complete shock. Never in a million years would she have guessed that this was the secret he was keeping. Now she felt absolutely horrible for accusing him of cheating and calling him ugly names to prove her point.

"So... you finally got your answer." Emma mused.

"Yeah-."

"And how do you feel now that you know the truth?" she asked.

Ruby slowly met her gaze and said, "I think I would have rather found out that they were prostitutes."

Adam's head snapped up in her direction as his face screwed in disgust. "What in the bloody hell? You thought what now?"

"Well it was a hell of a lot more plausible then fucking hitmen!" she exclaimed. "Now wasn't it?"

Adam shook his head and threw out his hands before yelling, "No! No it was not. I think I'd prefer to shoot someone than to be someone's sex toy thank ya very much!"

"Goodnight guys." Rolling her eyes while taking the file and Killian's jacket in hand, she retired to her room. "So Ruby took that better than expected." she said as she tossed the things to the bed. "She and Adam are actually out there debating whether prostitution would- Hey. You okay?" she asked once she realized he stayed unmoving while looking out of the bedroom window and to the rising sun.

Emma had somberly walked over to wrap her arms around his waist from behind, placing her cheek flush against the space between his shoulder blades. That's where they stood until the sun painted the sky in shades of red and orange.

Never moving.

Never speaking.

Just being.