Everything I Do, I Do It For You
Chapter Fourteen
Once again, morning came as the sun rose above the horizon out beyond the ocean surrounding Storybrooke's harbor. Sunrise was Ruby's favorite time of the day, as she always went for an early morning jog before the rest of her day began, even if she had gone running the night before under a full moon in her wolf form. She simply loved to run. The young woman also known to her friends as Little Red Riding Hood, left her grandmother's diner and started running down the streets until she made her way into the harbor and continued to run along the docks.
She hadn't been running in the harbor long, when she was suddenly surprised to come upon Captain Hook as he appeared to be asleep on one of the benches, if not passed out from possibly having one too many drinks the night before. Ruby cautiously approached him and stood above him while she looked down on him for almost a minute, but she didn't smell even the slightest hint of rum or any alcohol on his breath. Only the little that came from his flask she saw was tucked away in his pants pocket.
Finally, Ruby bent down beside him and reached out to lay her hands over both of his shoulders, as she gently shook him to try to wake him. Her actions suddenly startled Killian awake, causing him to gasp out of shock when he swiftly sat up and stared at her for a few seconds, until at last his mind registered who was kneeling in front of him with concern for him in her eyes.
"Hey… it's just me," she immediately said to him in worry. "Ruby."
"Aye, love," Killian replied quietly, as he straightened out and rubbed his hand over his face, then through his hair over the back of his head while he struggled to make sense of why he was waking up on a bench in the harbor, when he vaguely remembered heading back to Granny's to turn in for the night. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean to startle you."
Red shook her head and smirked, then she answered, "You were the one who was startled because I woke you up. I should be the one to apologize here. Not you. Are you okay? What are you doing sleeping out here, when you could have been in your nice warm bed at Granny's? It's cold out here. Even more so than normal since the Snow Queen's arrived and has put a chill in the air. You've got to be freezing."
The Captain looked around him again in confusion and then he quietly responded, "I could have sworn I was on my way back there. I remember walking Emma home and kissing her goodnight. Then, I started heading back, but after that… I can't seem to be able to recall anything after that. Including how or why I might have ended up falling asleep on this bench. I must have had a few drinks…"
"There's no smell of rum or any kind of alcohol on your breath, Hook," she replied to him out of concern once again. "Being part wolf, believe me… I'd smell it. You couldn't have been drinking last night. At least not any more than a sip or two. Come on… let's head back to Granny's. She'll be able to make you some fresh coffee or cocoa, and a nice hot breakfast. What do you say?"
"All right," Killian answered her, then slowly lifted himself off of the bench to stand before he began to follow after the young woman. "It certainly is a bit colder out here than it should be. Even if winter had begun before the Snow Queen arrived."
After they started walking back into town to return to the diner, Ruby looked over at her friend when he hadn't spoken again, and noticed that he staring down at his hook while his face looked troubled. She also saw that his only hand was trembling slightly as well, but somehow she sensed that the tremors weren't because of the cold, but from whatever it was worrying him.
Ruby finally broke the silence between them when she asked him worryingly, "There's something troubling you, isn't there? You can tell me anything, Hook. And if you don't want me to tell Emma…"
The pirate cut her off as he quickly lowered his hook down to his side so he could look over at her and interrupted, "It's nothing. Really… I'm fine. I just don't like not being able to remember something I might have done. It's happened on many occasions when I've had too much to drink in my past, but now… Well, I don't drink like that anymore. I haven't since our missing year while I had been apart from…"
"…from Emma," the woman finished for him and smiled when she turned her head to look over at him again. "You must love her very much."
"Aye," Killian whispered, then looked away once he realized they had finally reached the diner and followed Ruby inside.
She motioned for him to take a seat, then ran behind the bar so she could walk into the kitchen to find Granny and to help her make them all breakfast. Killian sat alone in one of the booths and waited for her to return with coffee and their food. Unfortunately, the cruel words spoken to him by his dark reflection in the mirror just hours ago, suddenly came flooding back because they had remained implanted within his mind, even though he had no memory of stumbling into the Snow Queen's lair or anything from the night since it had all been erased. And the words troubled him deeply. Taunting him… haunting him much like the sins of his past that he despised himself for.
Killian strangely became overwhelmed by doubts that made him second guess whether or not he was really helping Emma to become the strong woman he already knew her to be. That he was helping to break down her walls she had built up to protect herself so she couldn't be hurt by anyone again like she had been by practically everyone in her life. He couldn't help but wonder if he was really good enough for the woman he loved. And all of a sudden, he heard himself tauntingly state that Emma deserved to be with a man who could hold her with two hands, not just one and a bloodied piece of metal with a sharp point at its end that could easily hurt her if he moved the wrong way, even the slightest bit.
That was why he had been staring down at his hook before while they walked along the docks. And that was why he was doing so again, when Ruby and Granny both walked back over to join him with warm food and hot drinks in their hands before they carefully set it all down on the table in front of him, as the women looked down at the pirate Captain in concern upon seeing him lost so deep in his troubling thoughts.
Red looked over at her grandmother worryingly until Granny simply nodded, then the young woman reached out again to gently shake him from his thoughts like she had done to wake him. And when he blinked and shook his head to try to clear his mind when he looked up to see both women standing beside him, as well as food out on the table, he finally just rested his fingers over the bridge of his nose in frustration without saying a word.
Granny broke his silence first as she and Ruby took a seat in the booth across from him and stated bluntly, "Captain… if you're having trouble sleeping, it ain't because my mattresses are uncomfortable. So, you must be having bad dreams, or something else is bothering you. Have you thought about going to see Archie?"
Killian shook his head and then he responded, "Afraid not. Whatever's going on, it's only just started. Probably last night, although I can't recall any kind of nightmares. Or even having fallen asleep. But if it keeps up, I'll consider going to see the cricket."
"Do you at least have any ideas about what might be bothering you?" Ruby questioned him after she began to eat, while Killian picked up the mug filled with coffee to carefully take a few sips in order to help warm himself up a little.
"Nope… not even a little," he then lied to them, despite the women both keeping their eyes on them.
After he had taken a few bites of the waffle with eggs Granny had placed down in front of him, Killian started to take another, until he finally gave up trying to eat despite feeling hungry, as he just wasn't in the mood to do so. When Granny looked at him crossly for wasting what she brought out to him, he immediately apologized to her and then thanked her for the trouble.
The pirate took another sip of his coffee, then he looked at Ruby and asked, "So… are you no longer leaving us to go seek out more of your wolf pack, love? I thought you planned to leave…"
She turned her head to look over at her grandmother a moment as she finished for him saying, "Yesterday. I was going to leave yesterday. But after what happened… with being attacked by the Snow Queen and all that's going on still… I just can't leave until I know for sure all of you are going to be fine. Especially Granny. Besides, we might need one of the only beans in existence right now to escape this town should something tragic happen, or like when we needed a portal to rid Storybrooke of the wraith that attacked. That was before you arrived."
"Hey… why don't you and I play a game of darts," Ruby then swiftly suggested to him once Killian didn't respond again to their last topic. "Henry told me you were pretty good at hitting the bullseyes."
"All right," Hook replied with a smile, then stood up again to follow the shapeshifter over to the bar where she quickly rushed behind to grab the darts, before she returned with them in her hands and handed them over to him, while Granny got up to clear the plates and return to work.
As Ruby did so, she added haughtily, "Show me what you've got, Captain."
He set the darts down on the end of a table so he could throw one without having to hold the others, then stepped forward to line himself up in front of the dart board hanging up on the far wall now in front of him. The first three darts he threw all managed to somehow hit their targets, dead center bullseye. To Ruby and Granny, he was better than Henry had said he was.
However, when he started to aim before he could make his fourth shot, Emma then entered the diner as the door behind her slammed close again, while Killian turned to the sound of the bells jingling over the door and watched her approach him before he asked her worryingly, "The Snow Queen turn up? Did I miss the search party?"
"Oh… n… nothing to miss," the Savior anxiously replied to him when they both moved in closer to one another, until they were standing only a few feet apart. "There's no sign of that ice witch yet."
"That's all right, Swan," Hook confidently answered her, as he quickly suppressed whatever his feelings were before she came to see him so she wouldn't suspect anything was bothering him. "You'll find her."
Upon being nervous to do what she had come to the diner for while she looked towards him, Emma responded, "Yeah, I know. Uh… that's not why I'm here."
Killian looked at her with curiosity while he asked, "Then why are you here?"
"Well… I thought about what you said last night about being a survivor, and you're right," she replied to him again.
"It's like I said, love," he answered when he turned back around to face the dart board again and aimed his dart at his target once more. "You don't have to worry about me."
All of a sudden, Killian missed his shot after he threw the dart at the bullseye again which then landed on the floor as the projectile bounced off the board, upon becoming a bit flustered by her question when Emma immediately blurted out, "Good, 'cause I'm here to ask you out. To dinner or something."
Hook turned back to face the woman he loved, then deviously asked her, "Shouldn't I be the one asking you out?"
"Should have known you'd be old fashioned, given your age…" she playfully responded again. "What are you, like three hundred?"
"Curses and Neverland may have given me experience," the handsome pirate Captain smugly said as he moved in closer to her, until their faces were only inches apart. "But as you can see, I've retained my youthful glow."
Emma scoffed, yet she looked at him in amusement and then Killian continued, "I happily accept on one condition… you let me plan the evening."
She almost sounded hurt when she looked at him in disbelief while she retorted, "I know how to plan a date."
"You know how to chase a monster," Hook sternly corrected her. "I know how to plan an evening out."
"Well… I don't pillage and plunder on the first date, just so you know," the Savior replied again as she blushed when she smiled up at him.
Killian's facial expression then turned to one of seduction, and he lowered his voice so he sounded more flirty when he answered, "Well… that's because you haven't been out with me yet."
Emma chuckled slightly and he smiled, then he continued, "See you tonight."
She smiled at him as well, then turned to walk away from him while she left the diner again without saying hello to anyone else. Killian watched her until she disappeared from his view, as he basked in the happiness he felt by her taking the first step to ask him out of their first date at last. Unfortunately, his moment of happiness was short lived, when his earlier thoughts of him not being good enough for the Savior suddenly bombarded his mind even worse than they had before.
"Killian… that was so great!" Ruby excitedly cried out to him as she stood up from the booth where she had taken a seat again to wait once Emma entered the diner to talk to him, then she swiftly wrapped her arms around him in a hug to congratulate him, having failed to notice that his had face fallen when she did so. "I'm so happy for you both."
"You and Emma absolutely make a perfect couple," the young woman continued after she pulled back and looked at him once more, this time seeing the sadness in his eyes before he quickly tried to mask his pain when she faced him again.
However, she knew he wouldn't talk to her about his troubles any more than what little he already had, so instead she eagerly asked him, "You wanna know where you should take Emma to dinner tonight? Because believe me… you don't want to bring her here again. I'm not trying to put my grandmother's pride and joy down, because I love it as much as she does. But Granny's Diner is hardly a romantic setting. You should take Emma to Tony's, just a ways down the street. It's romantic… it's quiet… and the food is fabulous. Trust me. Emma will love it."
Killian smiled at her and then he responded gratefully, "It sounds perfect, love. Thank you."
He started to walk towards the door to leave, until he stopped a moment to study his apparel he'd been wearing for centuries. He'd gotten so used to them that it never really dawned on him before that his clothes were much too outdated and no longer fit the twenty-first century as Emma had spoken of on several occasions, any time they ever spoke about the modern world technology such as his cell phone. But now that he was thinking about it, Killian realized he wanted a change. He wanted everything for their first date to be perfect.
"Uh… I don't suppose you know of a good shop where I could go to buy myself new apparel?" he then asked Ruby when he turned around to face her again. "Apparel that might allow me fit in a bit more into this world, and not so much the Enchanted Forest?"
"Actually, I do," Little Red Riding Hood assuredly stated. "I'll walk down there with you before I head out to run a few errands for Granny, so you'll know where to go. Just don't forget to go talk to Tony at the restaurant before tonight too. They prefer it when people make reservations, rather than them walking in off the street and expecting a table to be free."
Killian smiled again and nodded, then together he and Ruby left the diner to walk down to the dress shop, as well as to Tony's so he could know where he was going. Afterwards, the young woman left his side to do her own things. However, before Killian walked back to either place, he turned to look down the street towards Gold's Pawnshop and stared darkly up at the sign while the taunts continued to play over and over again in his mind. He finally lowered his head and looked down at his hook once more, then at last made the decision to go and talk to the Crocodile about an abysmal decision which would soon come to be one that he would forever regret.