Chapter 14

Two weeks had passed and no sign of Cora anywhere. Regina couldn't hide her concern and there was nothing Emma could do to keep the brunette woman from worrying so much, Regina was a ball of pure nerves and anxiety, every sound, every shadow was a motive for high alert movements and acts, which most of the times scared the hell out of Storybrooke citizens. By now everyone in town knew what was going on so after they could calm themselves down and hearing their former Queen apologize they would try and calm the woman down saying that all was alright.

The only time that Regina was calm and serene was when she visited Henry at night. He was the only one capable of making her feel at peace with his innocent laugh and loving heart.

In that moment Regina was reading a bedtime story to their son while Emma and her parents were cleaning the dinner table.

"How is she?" David asked "I know that she said that she is 'fine' but…"

"She is not fine dad, she barely sleeps and she is constantly nervous. Having dinner here and being with Henry is the only time of the day that she is not continuously looking over her shoulder, searching for a sign of her mother, a sign of imminent danger." She sighs and carries the last plate to the sink.

"Once all of this is over she will get back to her normal self, until then we will have to support her in all that we can." Snow said sounding sad for the whole situation.

"I just wish that this would end but at the same time I'm scared of how it might end and of who will get hurt in the process." Emma states as she sits on the small couch.

Snow is about to say something when Emma's phone starts ringing. "It's Ruby." She tells her parents before taking the call "Hey Rubes, what's up?"

"Emma you have to come right now to Gold's shop…"

Ruby's voice sounds scared and agitated and she immediately gets up from the couch, her own expression changing from neutral to concerned in a flash "What happened?" she asks as she goes and gets her gun.

"Hook has Belle at gunpoint and Gold is trying to keep him calm but…"

"I'll be right there, be careful." She looks at her parents "Hook has Belle, I have to go, tell Regina and please take care of the kid." She says right before leaving the apartment in a rush.

David goes to Emma's room where Henry is currently staying, once he gets there he hears the end of the story and decides to wait for Regina to get out of the bed before calling her.

Finally managing to get off Henry's bed she lowers down to place a gentle kiss on his head and whisper "Goodnight my little prince." As she turns to leave she sees David at the bedroom door. She walks towards him and once she is outside, she closes the door and simply by looking at David's face she knows that something is wrong.

"What happened?" she immediately asks.

"Hook has Belle at gunpoint…" she cuts him off.

"Where?"

"Gold's shop."

"Emma?"

"Already left."

"And you let her go all alone? If Hook is there my mother possibly will also show up or worse, she is already there, waiting. How long has she been gone?"

"Almost 10 minutes, maybe 15." He corrects looking at his watch.

"Idiot." She said furiously before quickly disappearing leaving David staring at her purple cloud of smoke.

Ruby was outside waiting for Emma and once the blonde got there she quickly told her that she had seen a stranger walking in to the store and she decided to take a look around, noticing that Belle was alone inside with the man, she had phoned Gold to make sure that he was at least in the house that connects to the store. Not even two minutes had passed when the guy had grabbed Belle and tried to leave the store with her but Gold appeared in that precise moment making the man draw the gun that he was carrying and point it at Belle. Witnessing all that she called Emma.

After listening quickly to Ruby she told her "Stay here and keep your eyes open, we don't know if Cora might show up."

When Emma got into the shop she saw Gold pleading with the pirate to let Belle go while Hook kept her really close to his body with his gun pointed at her head.

As soon as Hook noticed her presence he immediately wickedly smiled "Look who decided to join our party crocodile, if it isn't the Swan girl, I'm glad that you could join us."

"Let her go Hook." Emma said firmly.

"I don't think so…" and he laughed before saying "I need a few things before letting her go."

"What do you want?" Gold asked.

"Number one I want you dead and number two and I'm sorry to say this but I'll have to kill you too Swan." He said winking at Emma.

"Well you can kill me but how in the hell do you expect to kill Gold?" Emma asked while trying to think of a way to get out of this situation with everyone in one piece.

"Don't worry love, I know exactly how to do it." His voice was pure venom. "He is going to give me exactly what I need in exchange for this beauty here."

Emma looked at Gold knowing exactly what the pirate wanted and she was hoping that the man wouldn't give in and hand the dagger to the pirate, if he did they were all doomed. So she tried to gain some time "What the hell might that be?"

Shaking his head and still with a wide grin on his face Hook answered "Don't play dumb Swan, it doesn't suit you, you both know that I want his dagger so just give it to me."

"Rumple don't…" Belle screamed and as soon as she did Hook hit her in the head with the hilt of his gun breaking the skin and making the brunette librarian bleed.

"Shut up, I'm the one giving orders around here." He screamed irritated "You better stop right there crocodile if you want this lass to live." Hook said as he saw Gold move towards him. "Hand me the bloody dagger crocodile."

With a movement of his hand Gold summoned his dagger and stayed put looking at the pirate.

'Shit' Emma thought and she decided to intervene "There is the dagger, now let Belle go and we can solve this between us." 'Man, Regina is going to freaking kill me.' She thought before adding "You can have me instead." She knew that Gold would never give away his dagger if she was the one in danger so it was worth a shot.

Gold briefly looked at Emma and he quickly understood what she was doing so he decided to let her do her thing and just play along.

Hook took a few seconds to think about the blonde's proposal and with a wicked grin he answered her "You've got yourself a deal Swan."

Emma nodded and started to walk towards him, once she was close enough she said "Let her go."

"Gladly." He pushed Belle away from him and grabbed Emma satisfactorily pressing the gun against her head. "I must say I missed having your body against mine." He said sniffing her hair.

Gold helped Belle get off the floor "Go outside love, this is between us now." The woman simply nodded at him and ran out of the store.

As Belle exited Regina appeared in her purple cloud and as soon as she saw Emma at the mercy of the pirate her heart stopped and everything hurt but she placed her mask on and acted as coldly as she could.

"If you know what it's good for you, you will let Emma go, now." She said as coolly as she could muster.

"My, my, how the mighty have fallen." He said looking at Regina up and down "You always did like the feisty one's." he said licking Emma's neck in order to provoke the Queen.

"If I were you I wouldn't do that again." Gold warned him, he could feel the anger pouring out of Regina at the same time that he saw her eyes changing color, they went from their normal deep brown eyes to a deep dark purple. He didn't know why but he always felt connected to Regina and he now regretted all that he had done to the woman and somehow he felt like he owed her and he didn't want her to suffer the pain of losing the love of her life all over again. Ever since he knew that Cora would find her way over to Storybrooke he had decided that he would do all that he could to protect Regina, his dark heart somehow found a way to keep a special place for the brunette and he never knew why, maybe someday he would decipher that enigma.

"Let her go." Regina managed to say through gritted teeth.

Deciding to defy Regina instead Hook said "What if I don't?"

"Hook don't…" Emma tried to speak but he immediately shushed her and said "Missing your lover already? Maybe she won't mind if I teach you a few lessons first?" he asked sarcastically.

"Enough." Regina screamed as she summoned a fireball in her hand.

"Oh… Her majesty doesn't like to share…" he said as he let his hook slide down Emma's stomach. "Well I'm sorry to inform you Regina that your dearest mother wants this Swan dead and served on a silver platter and that is exactly what I'm going to do."

"Don't test my patience Hook because I can assure you that my aim is much better than yours." Regina threatened.

"Oh I'm so scared…" he provoked.

"You do know that we are two against one?" Gold asked him.

Hook suddenly remembered that in his thirst to have Emma in his possession he had completely forgotten about the dark one's dagger. He lowered his head and laughed at his own stupidity. In a rapid move he threw Emma to the ground and shot his weapon against her. At least he would go down but he wouldn't go down alone, he would take their precious Savior with him.

Reacting in less than a second Regina threw her fireball against the pirate sending him flying against the nearest wall. At the same time Gold had stopped the bullet that was meant to kill the blonde Savior, avoiding the worst to happen.