Lost Girl, Lost Boy
Chapter Fourteen
Inside Killian's mind…
When Hook slowly awoke again, he found Emma sitting beside him on her bed inside their loft and as he looked over at her, she spoke up saying coldly, "I warned you not to go see Gold. You could have gotten yourself killed."
Killian scoffed while he struggled to sit up despite the pain in his stomach that suddenly came back to him as he remembered Gold stabbing him, then he looked down at the bandage covering the small wound and finally turned to the blonde as he replied in frustration, "And what was it that I was supposed to have done again? Oh, that's right… He tried to kill me twice within the last few hours because I supposedly tried to convince Belle of the monster that he is and that she should leave him. That does sound like something I might do, but I didn't. Because this… none of this, is real."
"I was really hoping that the second knock to your head would have straightened out your memory problems," the Savior answered worryingly. "I'm real, Killian. Everything that's happening, it's all real. You're not trapped in some sort of twisted reality."
"I'm sorry, love, but I'm afraid you're going to have to do a whole lot better than that if you want to convince me of whatever the hell this bloody curse or spell I'm stuck under is supposed to do," he said angrily as he moved weakly to get off of the bed. "It's clever, to try to make me appear as though I'm a madman."
Emma walked around the bed to try to help him until he pushed her away and then she responded sternly, "You're the only one making yourself look like a madman, Killian. I just want to help you."
Hook looked at her again as he asked angrily, "Is that what this is? Is that what the Wicked Witch wanted when she crushed that flower over my heart, to make me believe myself to be crazy? Well, I won't let it work. I know I'm not wrong here."
"Killian, I told you, she's been dead for months," the image of the woman he loved replied somberly. "And when she attacked you, she almost crushed your heart, but I stopped her before she could. I don't know what flower you're talking about? Perhaps, if you talk to Archie…"
"I have no desire to speak with a cricket, whom it wasn't all that long ago that I held prisoner onboard my ship and tortured for information," he answered. "It may have been a year since I've seen the man, but I doubt he'll care to learn about any of my darkest secrets. No, what I need is to figure out what's going on, then get back to the real world."
She nodded in frustration and then turned to him again as she asked, "And in this real world you believe in so strongly, how exactly do you perceive your relationship with me? You said before that I don't love you and that I never could. Is that really the kind of world you want to go back to?"
Hook finally looked into her eyes as he responded sadly, "Aye. Perhaps Emma doesn't love me, but I'd rather live in a world where she hates me, then live in a world that was created by a witch or by the bloody Crocodile, in a world where I've gone mad!"
"You know what, perhaps you're right about thing," Emma replied coldly as she turned her back on him, walked over to the door to open it, then motioned for him to leave their apartment. "Maybe Gold did do something more to you when he blasted you across the room, and if he did, then I will get to the bottom of it. But so long as you're acting like a man who wants nothing to do with me, I don't want anything to do with you. I want you to leave."
"Swan," Killian began until he cut himself off and simply nodded while he started to leave until he stopped in the doorway, then turned back to the Savior as he spoke up again saying, "Whether you are a figment of my imagination or a ghost trying to torment me, know that I never meant to hurt you. I would never hurt you… her intentionally."
The Savior looked up at him as she reached up to stroke his cheek and answered, "If that's true, then try to forget about this other woman, this other world that you believe you come from and be here now, with me. She may not love you, Killian. But I do."
Hook stared into her eyes longingly as she leaned in closer and was about to kiss him until he suddenly pulled away from her as he stated despondently, "If only I could. I'm sorry, love. I have to go."
After he left Granny's, Killian wandered slowly down the street as he started to make his way to Regina's where he was hoping he would be able to find answers from the former Evil Queen that he couldn't get from Rumpelstiltskin. However, before he was even able to leave the main part of town, all of a sudden the pirate captain was jumped by at least five men and pulled into an alleyway where they would be out of sight from anyone who might be passing by at that hour in the morning, though he had no clue what time it actually was.
"I gave you a simple job to do, pirate," the man Hook immediately knew was in charge as soon as he regained his bearings to see who attacked him said. "And so far, you haven't lifted a finger, or a hook to do it."
"Albert Spencer, how lovely to see you again," the ship captain responded contemptuously. "I fear you will have to be a bit more unambiguous with what it is you would like to have me do, though I doubt I would have agreed to do much of anything for the likes of you."
The King glared at him and then replied, "You know damn well what it is I want from you. I told you that I wanted David dead by earlier tonight. You failed me."
Killian looked at George with surprise as he asked sternly, "Why would you enlist me to do your dirty work? I will never harm David or anyone else here in this town. I thought I made that quite clear back when I stopped you from killing your son in the Enchanted Forest? That's right, it was Captain Hook who stopped you that night."
"And I thought I made it clear that if you didn't kill him, then I would kill his daughter and then his pregnant wife," the evil man answered cruelly. "Perhaps you need a small preview of what I will have done to them, should I have to kill David myself."
Suddenly, two of King George's men grabbed hold of him tightly and the rest of them began to beat him, punching his face, then moved on to his chest and stomach as others kicked him after they forced him down to the ground, all while their leader watched from a few feet away with immense pleasure.
In the real Storybrooke…
"I'm so sorry, I should have called you instead some time ago, but I knew what you were trying to do was important," the Blue Fairy spoke up saying as soon as Henry left with David, while Emma placed her hand on Hook's forehead and felt heat emulating off of him, then took his hand again. "I heard your voices in the hallway, but I didn't hear Henry's. I had no idea he would be with you."
Regina mumbled, "He wasn't. He happened to be waiting for us… for his mother, to come back."
Mother Superior looked down as she responded, "I see. Anyway, I wouldn't have come out if I had known, let alone left the door open wide enough for him to see what happened to Hook. I covered him with a blanket, just not all the way it seems."
"How long ago did this happen to him?" Emma asked worryingly upon taking a close look at the large, dark bruise that was freshly formed across his left cheek, as well as a few smaller, not so serious ones.
"It was almost an hour after you left," the fairy replied nervously. "He must have been struck by something, quite hard, in whatever nightmare he's trapped inside. Unfortunately, that isn't the only new appearance we have to worry about."
When she carefully pulled back the blanket, the heroes found that dark bruises and lacerations covered most of Hook's chest and sides, as well as his back. It was clear that several of his ribs were either broken or fractured. If all this has already been done to him, there was no telling what would happen to him next, or how long it would be before his injuries became life threatening.
Blue continued, "I'm afraid this only just happened, moments before you returned."
Emma looked at him with fear upon seeing the pain etched across his face while she asked angrily, "What the hell is happening to him? What could have done this?"
"It looks as though he's been beaten within an inch of his life," Mary Margaret answered as she sat down on the floor beside her daughter on the floor next to the couch. "We should really take him to the hospital. He's only getting worse."
"No!" the Savior responded brusquely. "No, he's safer right here. There's nothing that can be done for him there that we can't do for him here, or at our place, Regina if you prefer us to leave."
The Queen shook her head as she replied, "It's fine if you leave him. Emma's right. He is probably the safest right here. I've got a protection spell around this place, so that anyone else besides us won't be able to break in here. Although it might be more comfortable for him if we were to let him lie on a bed rather than my nice white satin couch, which he's getting blood on."
Snow and Mother Superior looked at the woman with surprise as she used her magic to make a bed appear in the far corner of her office, then Mary Margaret stated, "That's oddly very kind of you."
"I do have my moments," Regina answered curtly.
"Thank you, Regina," Emma responded after each of the women carefully lifted Hook from the couch and carried him over to the bed. "I don't think I say that enough to you. Mother Superior, have you had any luck with the flower yet?"
She looked at Emma and replied, "I'm afraid not. And I fear that we won't ever figure out what it is without Rumpelstiltskin or the Wicked Witch telling us. However, I might have an idea, a possible way to help Hook until we can figure out how to save him. But… it's dangerous, for you I mean."
Emma asked in confusion, "What is it? Hook saved me. It's my turn to save him now and I will do anything I need to do."
"I thought you'd say that," Blue answered with a smile. "If you're willing, I can magically link you to Hook. By lying down beside him so that the two of you will be as close to one another as you can be, I can make it so that you'll be able to enter inside his mind. That way, you'll be able to see and hear everything that is happening to him. You'll be able to speak to him and hopefully convince him that whatever he is dreaming, isn't real. By doing so, you may be able to save him, but I'm warning you. If you do this, whatever happens to him while you're connected, it will also happen to you."
"Wait a minute, you're saying that if Hook dies before we can save him, then Emma will die too?" Snow asked fearfully. "No, someone else should do this. My daughter's too important to risk this. I'll do it."
The fairy objected, "Emma is the only choice for this task. She's the closest to him. In order for this spell to work, a strong bond has to have been formed between the two individuals."
Emma quickly responded steadfastly, "I'll do it. Mother Superior's right. I don't know what mine and Hook's relationship is, but he thinks he loves me and I do care about him enough to risk my life for him. Don't worry, I'll be alright. I am the Savior after all, remember? This is my job, whether I like it or not."